Quentin Tarantino's new movie was very nearly the first direct sequel of his career.
In a new interview with Collider, Tarantino revealed that what turned into The Hateful Eight was originally started as a book sequel to Django Unchained. He said he wasn't interested in a film sequel, but that he was interested in producing a few followups in novel form.
The book he was writing was going to be called Django in White Hell, and instead of Major Warren, the character Samuel L. Jackson plays in The Hateful Eight, it was Django. Ultimately, though, he changed his mind.
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Tarantino explained, “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.’"
Tarantino has previously said that after retiring from filmmaking, he hopes to write novels and plays, and he even recently said that he'd like to turn The Hateful Eight into a stage play.
The Hateful Eight follows a group of strangers who all take shelter at the same cabin during a blizzard and begin to turn on one another. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Demian Bichir and Bruce Dern. The film will open in limited release on December 25 and then expand wide on January 1.