The actors who ‘betrayed’ Quentin Tarantino
Back in January 2014, the full script for The Hateful Eight by Quentin Tarantino turned up on the internet. This was distinctly bad news for the director, who had been working on the screenplay since 2013, having released his blood-spattered Western, Django Unchained, the previous year. By the time the script was leaked, it had been sent to just three people, all of whom were members of the cast: Michael Madsen, Tim Roth and Bruce Dern.
“What pissed me off about the leak was that normally, I kind of finish a script, and when I’m done with it, I’m ready to go into production,” Taratinto said during a Comic-Con Q&A. “But with this one, I wanted to go through three or four drafts, I wanted to ge there. You know, there’s certain plot threads in the first draft that I wasn’t quite ready to tie up yet but I knew I had a couple more drafts to go. So that’s why I was a little disconcerted when it got out there. Having said that, though, my process was my process, so even though I yelled and screamed about it, I kind of kept on doing what I planned to do. So the second draft and the third draft is what I ended up shooting and was where I was going anyway with it.”
Tarantino’s original plan had been to release The Hateful Eight as a sequel to Django Unchained. However, he eventually decided to turn it into a standalone feature, and set to work on a screenplay. He’d intended production to begin in the winter of 2014, so when the script was leaked in January of that year, he was forced to push back his production plans by roughly a year.
Tarantino revealed that he’d shown the screenplay to Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth and Reggie Hudlin, one of whom he believed had given it to an agent. “I gave it to one of the producers on Django Unchained, Reggie Hudlin, and he let an agent come to his house and read it,” Tarantino told Deadline. “That’s a betrayal, but not crippling because the agent didn’t end up with the script.”
In that same Deadline interview, Tarantino explained that the leak had put him off the idea of releasing The Hateful Eight. “I don’t know how these agents work, but I’m not making this next,” he said. “I’m going to publish it, and that’s it for now. I give it out to six people, and if I can’t trust them to that degree, then I have no desire to make it. I’ll publish it. I’m done. I’ll move on to the next thing. I’ve got 10 more where that came from.”
Of the actors Tarantino gave the script to, there was one he was sure wasn’t responsible for the leak. “I gave it to three actors: Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth,” he said. “The one I know didn’t do this is Tim Roth. One of the others let their agent read it, and that agent has now passed it on to everyone in Hollywood.” Tarantino seemed fairly confident that Bruce Dern was the one to pass the script on, going so far as to organise a lawsuit against the actor’s Creative Artists Agency. However, the director later dropped the suit and went ahead with the release as planned. As a result, the identity of the guilty party is still unknown.
Never Miss A Take
The Far Out Quentin Tarantino Newsletter
All the latest Quentin Tarantino content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.