We are only two months away from the release of Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and some interesting news regarding two different versions of the film has been unearthed in a recent interview with Variety. Tarantino previously announced the intention of releasing the film as a limited roadshow engagement this holiday season with the film being presented in Ultra Panavision 70mm, but now we find out that that version of the film will be different from the one being released just a few weeks later in multiplexes.
Tarantino had this to say:
“The roadshow version has an overture and an intermission, and it will be three hours, two minutes. The multiplex version is about six minutes shorter, not counting the intermission time, which is about 12 minutes.”
The director clarified that he was not ordered to cut the theatrical version down, but rather wanted to make the roadshow a unique experience with a little more meat. But that doesn’t mean you’ll see a weaker version in multiplexes, rather, a “different” experience. As Tarantino states, he didn’t want to “treat the multiplex release like this left-handed version, either,” he said. So he tweaked certain scenes to better suit the separate viewing experiences.:
“The 70 is the 70,” he said. “You’ve paid the money. You’ve bought your ticket. So you’re there. I’ve got you. But I actually changed the cutting slightly for a couple of the multiplex scenes because it’s not that. Now it’s on Showtime Extreme. You’re watching it on TV and you just kind of want to watch a movie on your couch. Or you’re at Hot Dog on a Stick and you just want to catch a movie.”
The sequences in question play in “big, long, cool, unblinking takes” in the 70mm version, Tarantino said. “It was awesome in the bigness of 70, but sitting on your couch, maybe it’s not so awesome. So I cut it up a little bit. It’s a little less precious about itself.”
The Hateful Eight roadshow is to play in 100 theaters when it opens Dec. 25.
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