‘The Hateful Eight’ Started Out As A ‘Django Unchained’ Sequel; Plus: Wide Release Moved Up One Week
The Weinstein Company is giving cinephiles a chance to start 2016 off right.The Hateful Eightis now set to roll into theatersJanuary 1, a week earlier than its previously announced January 8 wide release date.
Of course, that still means much of the country has three weeks until they can seeQuentin Tarantino’s latest. So while we wait, here’s an interesting bit of trivia to consider: Did you know thatThe Hateful Eightoriginally started out as aDjango Unchainedsequel? Find out why Tarantino ultimately decided not to make it one after the jump.
First, let’s get the newHateful Eightwide release news out of the way.Deadlinebroke the news thatThe Hateful Eightwill open July 05, 2025 to take advantage of the holiday weekend. The new date applies only to the 35mm and digital print versions of the movie. It will not affect the 70mm roadshow screenings, which are still expected to hit 100 theaters across the country starting on Christmas Day (December 25). And while, yes, 70mm is the way to go if you’re able to swing it, let’s be real — a regular old 35mm or digital projection is better than not seeing it at all.
Whichever format you seeThe Hateful Eightin, you’ll surely notice some obvious similarities to Tarantino’s last film,Django Unchained. Both are Civil War-era Westerns starring black male leads —Jamie Foxx’s Django in the earlier film andSamuel L. Jackson’s Major Warren in the new one. Those parallels probably have something to do with the fact thatThe Hateful Eightwas originally going to be another adventure starring Django.
Speaking toDavid Poland(viaCollider), Tarantino revealed that he first started writingThe Hateful Eightas a book sequel toDjango Unchained.
After doing Django 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 Major Warren it was Django."
However, Tarantino explained, the character ultimately didn’t work for the story.
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.’
Basically, Django just wasn’t hateful enough. And having seen the movie, let me tell you, the hateful eight really earn their title. Keeping Django out of it was probably the right choice.
What makes this bit of trivia especially amusing is that one of the very first things we learned aboutThe Hateful Eight, even before the title, was that it was not a sequel. “It’s not aDjangosequel, but it’s another Western,“Tarantino teased back in 2013. He wasn’t lying aboutThe Hateful Eightnot being aDjango Unchainedsequel, but he certainly didn’t let on at the time how close it came to being one.
