Say what you want about Quentin Tarantino - in the years since the heights of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction his work has become that of a more marmite (love or loathe) director with varying critical and public responses to, say, the Kill Bill movies, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained etc - but it seems his latest film (out in the UK this week) is having as much drama off-screen as on.
Before Christmas Tarantino spoke angrily about The Hateful Eight being forced out the famous Arclight 'Cinerama Dome' Movie Theater in Los Angeles, claiming that Disney had strong-armed the venue into elbowing out the contractually-agreed 70mm presentation of his film in favour of an extended through-the-holidays presence for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
"“It’s vindictive, it’s mean, and it’s extortion,” an angry Tarantino told radio-show host Howard Stern, though later information makes it look like the Star Wars booking might actually been in place for a longer time than Tarantino believed and that the director had either been misled or misunderstood the programming agreed. The truth remains debatable. Ultimately the western, didn't take as much box-office on its opening weekend as expected. Producer Harvey Weinstein, perhaps stating the obvious, noted that it hadn't been such a good idea to open against the sci-fi juggernaut, even as counter-programming.
Then, just before Christmas, The Hateful Eight (which stars the likes of Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason leigh, Tim Roth, Samuel L. Jackson and Walton Goggins) was one of a raft of pristine digital screeners released en masse to the internet by torrent-pirates and which became one of the festive season's most illicit and wildly-circulated 'gifts' at the expense of the production and studio. There's little doubt such a move cost the studio a lot of money and cut into those early box-office totals.
The newest controversy is UK-based, with the news that several cinema chains are now saying that they won't be making the film available to their audiences. It has been formally revealed that in a 'late decision' this week Cineworld, Curzon and Picturehouse cinemas won’t be showing the Western revenge thriller due to the collapse of a deal between the chains and the film's distributor, Entertainment. That means those holding the 'Unlimited' passes that Cineworld offers as part of its loyalty program will not have the opportunity to see the western - something that has not gone down well with customers.
It was initially hard to find out any details of the fall-out between the two parties, with rumours that the strict screening conditions that the distributor/Tarantino demanded to show the film in the best format (70mm Ultra Panavision being a higher resolution than conventional 35mm film), might be the sticking issue. Though partially true, it seems more accurately to involve a deal made between Entertainment and Odeon for an exclusive screening. when it opens on Friday..
In a statement made to site DigitalSpy, Cineworld confirmed that they would not be showing Tarantino's film in any of their venues, which number around 800 throughout the UK...
“We can confirm that The Hateful Eight will not be shown at our cinemas. Unfortunately we were not able to reach an agreement with the movie’s distributor. We make every effort to show a wide variety of movies and we’re very excited about other releases in January including Joy and The Danish Girl.”
Curzon cinemas confirmed their position in official tweets, stating: "We love a Quentin Tarantino movie but it is with great regret that we will not be showing The Hateful Eight from Friday 8 January. On this occasion, the distributor has chosen to screen the film only in 70mm in the West End and in selected venues nationwide.
In response to tweeted queries, Picturehouse Cinemas (owned by Cineworld) responded: "Apologies but we won’t be showing it. This is because we have been unable to reach an agreement with the film’s distributor."
Entertainment, putting their side of the story, released the following statement giving a more detailed response to the 'boycott':
“Cineworld had made us aware that they were very unhappy that The Hateful Eight had been booked into the Odeon Leicester Square for an exclusive 70mm Ultra Panavision presentation, and specifically that they would therefore not be able to play the film at their Picturehouse Central venue. Due to the special facilities required for the unique 70mm Ultra Panavision presentation we needed the largest theatre and screen possible in the West End and the Odeon Leicester Square was the natural choice. The technical elements and costs involved with this special presentation meant that this would need to be the exclusive West End venue. The Odeon Leicester Square seats 1,680 and Picturehouse Central only seats 344, so clearly this was not a viable alternative. Cineworld had every opportunity to book the film in their other cinemas across the country on the same basis as other exhibitors and declined to do so. This is despite the fact that there is no dispute over the financial terms for this release. We feel very sorry for Cineworld’s customers and in particular their 'Unlimited' cardholders who will be denied the chance to see the film at a Cineworld cinema using their 'Unlimited' card – a result of this Picturehouse issue relating to a single London West End cinema. As far as the general release is concerned we will be booking more sites with other exhibitors to compensate for Cineworld’s lack of support for a film that has already been given 5 stars and declared as Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece by The Guardian. If Cineworld change their mind by tomorrow morning and decide to book the film in the proper way along the lines of the other exhibitors we would be happy for them to do so.”
Irish cinema chain IMC were also, initially not showing the film - though possibly over different issues regarding costs/percentages - but the matter was resolved and it will now be shown on thirteen of their screens.
Interestingly, The Hateful Eight remains listed on some of Cineworld's online booking sites, though it is not actually possible to allocate tickets.
Odeon and Vue cinemas across the UK are not involved with the dispute and will be showing the film from Friday. Read Mike Leeder's review here...
