Quentin Tarantino Originally Planned The Hateful Eight As A Django Novel

Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming movie ‘The Hateful Eight’ is the acclaimed writer-director’s second western in a row after ‘Django Unchained’- but this wasn’t always his plan.

Tarantino has revealed that he originally had designs on exploring the further adventures of Jamie Foxx’s emancipated slave-turned-avenging gunslinger in a series of novels, before having a change of heart.

In a video interview with David Poland (quotes via Collider), the filmmaker says, “After doing ‘Django [Unchained]’ I knew I didn’t want to do any Django movie sequels or anything, but I liked the idea of there being several paperbacks that could be the further adventures of Django or maybe go back in time, a couple more Django/Schultz adventures.

“So I hadn’t written a novel before and I thought I would just try my hand at writing a Django paperback. At the time it was called ‘Django in White Hell.’ Instead of [Samuel L. Jackson’s] Major Warren it was Django.”

‘The Hateful Eight’ has already garnered comparisons to Tarantino’s debut ‘Reservoir Dogs’ due to its set-up of eight untrustworthy characters - among them Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh and ‘Reservoir Dogs’ alumni Tim Roth and Michael Madsen - in a single location.

Tarantino ultimately revised his idea from a Django novel to an original screenplay once he realised his essentially noble hero simply didn’t fit into the narrative:

“Because I was introducing such rough characters in this piece, and there would be even more disreputable characters waiting for them [at the haberdashery], at a certain point I realized, ‘well you know what’s wrong with this piece?

“It’s Django. he’s needs to go. Because you shouldn’t have a moral center when it comes to these eight characters.”

‘Django Unchained’ earned Tarantino his second Oscar for Best Screenplay (the first being ‘Pulp Fiction’), and a second Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Christoph Waltz (who got his first for ‘Inglourious Basterds’).

Tarantino recently declared to The Hollywood Reporter that he only intends to make two more films, before changing course to being a novelist and playwright.

Before that fateful day, ‘The Hateful Eight’ (which has already earned Tarantino a Best Screenplay nomination and Jennifer Jason-Leigh a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Golden Globes) will open in UK cinemas on 8 January 2016.

Picture Credit: WENN, The Weinstein Company, Sony

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