NEW YORK , New York, Dec. 14, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) — The Weinstein Company (TWC) announced today that Academy Award® winning writer/director Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming feature “Hateful Eight,” will premiere in 70mm on December 25, 2015 exclusively for a one-week roadshow opening that will be featured in glorious 70mm in 100 theaters nationwide.
Following the one-week engagement, the film will open with a theatrical digital release nationwide on December 31, 2015, while continuing to be shown in 70mm as well. The film premieres tonight in New York in 70mm at the Ziegfeld theater.
Starting today, moviegoers can purchase tickets for the 70mm roadshow showings at tickets.thehatefuleight.com. To mark the occasion, Quentin and TWC are commemorating the opening with the “12 Days of Hateful Eight Giveaways”, where each day a different “Hateful Eight” prize, memorabilia or once-in-a-lifetime experience will be given away to moviegoers who buy roadshow tickets in advance leading up to the Christmas day opening.
The exclusive roadshow engagement that”Hateful Eight” is embarking on will replicate the special event releases that films used to receive in the early and mid-twentieth century. They screened a longer version of the film than would have been shown in wide release, including a musical overture to start the show and an intermission between acts, and moviegoers received a special souvenir program.
TWC and Tarantino’s presentation of “Hateful Eight” will mark the widest 70mm release that the industry has seen in over twenty years. The film will open in 44 markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Washington DC, Houston, Detroit, Phoenix, Seattle, Tampa, Minneapolis, Denver, Miami, Cleveland, Orlando, Sacramento, St. Louis, Portland, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, Baltimore, San Diego, Nashville, Kansas City, San Antonio, West Palm Beach, Birmingham, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, Austin, New Orleans, Providence, Knoxville, Santa Barbara, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver. Quentin and cast members from “Hateful Eight” will be touring the country making surprise appearances in select cities at 70mm roadshow showings.
Not since the 1966 film KHARTOUM starring Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier has a film been shot in Ultra Panavision 70 format. In 2012, TWC distributed Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed film “The Master” in a similar 70mm format.
The lead cast for “Hateful Eight”includes Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Bruce Dern.
Written and directed by Tarantino, “The Hateful Eight” is produced by Richard N. Gladstein, Stacey Sher and Shannon McIntosh. Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein and Georgia Kacandes are executive producing, and Coco Francini and William Paul Clark are associate producing.
In “The Hateful Eight”, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice.
Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new Sheriff.
Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob (Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Dern).
As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all…
“The Hateful Eight” marks a continuation of the long-standing relationship between the celebrated filmmaker and the Weinsteins, who have collaborated on all of Tarantino’s films from “Reservoir Dogs” through “Django Unchained.”