Last week film fans were revelling in the news that master director, Quentin Tarantino, had named his latest screenplay, The Hateful Eight before moving forward into production. This week, disaster as news hit that Tarantino had shelved his latest project after its script was leaked on the internet.
Tarantino added, after the announcement, “I’m very, very depressed. I finished a script, a first draft, and I didn’t mean to shoot it until next winter, a year from now. I gave it to six people, and apparently it’s gotten out today.”
Personally, as much as I am dismayed that we may not get to see the latest Tarantino screenplay reach the big screen, I am completely on his side. Imagine you had spent over a year of your life writing a screenplay. You finish your first draft and give a copy to a few trusted individuals. That screenplay is then leaked online, before your comftable having it read. Inevitable it will receive criticism before its even finished and may even spawn copycat scripts and films. Not only is the excitement in the project tarnished but the trust you have shown in certain people would be broken.
Tarantino is now calling on Hollywood to “name names” and find out who it was that passed around the script. “I don’t know how these f*****g agents work, but I’m not making this next.” Apparently Tarantino had been working on another script at the same time as this one but had planned on shooting The Hateful Eight first. Now its seems that he will move on to his other script. For now the leaked screenplay will be published as a novel. “I’m going to publish it, and that’s it for now. We can only hope that those responsible are held accountable and that Mr Tarantino’s excitement in his latest Western will be restored enough for it to reach the big screen.