After Inside Out is released next week (which I get to see on Tuesday!), there’s probably only two films that I absolutely have to see for the remainder of 2015: Star Wars The Force Awakens, and Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight – and it looks like I’ll get to see both in December. It was announced today that The Hateful Eight would be released on Christmas day in select theaters capable of displaying the 70mm projection, in which Tarantino chose to shoot the entirety of the film (technically, he shot it in 65mm, the other five holds audio tracks, but who’s counting?). This results in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, a panoramic widescreen view akin to an IMAX theater. In fact, Tarantino is making an effort to install 70mm projectors in various theatres across the United States in order to promote his love of shooting on film (a real passion of his – he hates digital filmmaking). For those theaters that cannot handle 70mm, The Hateful Eight will play nationwide a couple of weeks later on January 8th.
The story reads like a mash up of other Tarantino films: in post Civil-War America, a bounty hunter and his captive hole up in a cabin with other outcasts to outlast a blizzard. We can see shades of Reservoir Dogs (groups of criminals thrust into one location), Django Unchained (Civil War era; bounty hunters), and probably some of the non-linear storytelling of Pulp Fiction as well. Regardless, you can’t argue that Tarantino is on a roll with his last two films, and I think he feels like The Hateful Eight is very much the third in a trilogy. If it is anywhere near as good as Django Unchained and Inglorious Basterds, then it may turn out to be the actual best movie released in December.
We don’t have any trailers, stills, or a detailed synopsis beyond what I have related, but a specific release date is encouraging. Before today, we only knew that The Hateful Eight was set for “Winter 2015”, so it is nice to see it nailed down, especially in such a rare format. There is a theater near me capable of projecting a 70mm film (I saw Interstellar there and lost my phone; worth it!) so I expect to be able to see this film in the intended format. Hopefully you’ll get that chance too, and the movie turns out awesome.