Tarantino Hateful Eight Gawker Suit Dismissed

Quentin Tarantino has had his lawsuit against a website which linked to a leaked script for his new film dismissed.

The Oscar-winning director sued Gawker for contributory copyright infringement after it linked to another site which had posted the whole of The Hateful Eight, an unproduced Western.

The director had claimed that although the site had not published the script itself, it had made it accessible by linking to it.

But California Judge John F Walter said Tarantino failed to prove it was an act of direct copyright infringement.

The director has been given until May 1 to amend his arguments and re-file his complaints.

Gawker claimed its actions were "fair use" and that it was only reporting the fact that the script had been leaked.

Tarantino told the website Deadline he had given copies of the script to just six people, including a number of actors he had worked with before.

But agents soon began calling hoping to get their clients roles in the film and the script then appeared online.

The 51-year-old said this left him feeling "betrayed" and "very, very depressed".

On Saturday the director was joined by Bruce Dern, Samuel L Jackson and Kurt Russell for a live read of the script.

Tarantino told the audience in Los Angeles the film is split into five chapters but that the fifth will be rewritten or removed.

The director won an Oscar for his first Western, Django Unchained, in 2013.