Quentin Tarantino on Netflix’s The Hateful Eight mini-series

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Several days ago, Quentin Tarantino's THE HATEFUL EIGHT dropped on Netflix, but it was a little different to what fans remembered. What was released was an extended version of the film, and no, it wasn't the Roadshow Cut which has never been released on home-media, but instead a four episode mini-series. While the reaction to this recut was mixed, it's not something which Netflix took on themselves. While speaking with /Film, Tarantino confirmed that he oversaw the crafting of the new mini-series himself.

"Well, we finished the whole run of the movie. And I had no reason to at this time to put the Roadshow version out; because that was [its own thing]…it was about that 70 millimeter screening. So as far as like the whole prologue and the intermission, that didn’t seem to really make much sense, unless it was playing on TCM Roadshow week or something," Tarantino said. "So Netflix came to us and said, 'Hey, look, if you’d be interested…If there’s even more footage, if you’d be interested in putting it together and in a way that we could show it as three or four episodes, depending on how much extra footage you have, we’d be willing to do that.'" The offer intrigued Tarantino enough that he got together with his editor, Fred Raskin, and edited THE HATEFUL EIGHT down into 50 minute bits. "We didn’t re-edit the whole thing from scratch, but we did a whole lot of re-editing, and it plays differently," Tarantino explained. "Some sequences are more similar than others compared to the film, but it has a different feeling. It has a different feeling that I actually really like a lot. And there was a literary aspect to the film anyway, so it definitely has this 'chapters unfolding' quality." The director also commented on the debate regarding whether or not there's any new footage in the mini-series, and confirmed that there's approximately 25 minutes of new material.

Yeah, it’s really frustrating that on one hand, it seems like every website in the world wants to write about it, but no one wants to actually watch it. So they could actually see for themselves if it’s different. Like, 42 different websites would rather speculate on if it’s different rather than just watch it. So it’s all this misconception. “Oh, they’re just replaying the credits…it’s just only what was in the roadshow version.” No! I don’t know [an exact] timeline as far as how much new footage is in it, but it’s something like about, like, 25 minutes if not more. And there are sequences that play very different. You know, one of the things in it that I like a lot, and it was one of the things [that] didn’t quite work in the feature, we had moved on, but in this kind of situation it was different. Where, um…Have you seen the movie?

The feature-film version of THE HATEFUL EIGHT will always exist, but Quentin Tarantino said that this project allowed him to put a lot of his original narrative ideas back in. "Now, in the course of editing a movie, a lot of those ideas go by the wayside, because ultimately it’s not serving your purpose for making a linear movie. But in this case, I was able to put it all back in. And if you’re just watching it like a chapter at a [time], which is basically 50 minutes at a time, then you’re able to absorb it," Tarantino explained. "And in a fun way, you’re able to look at it slightly differently. Do you want to keep watching it? You can, but you don’t have to. Each episode ends it an emotional place and you’re also able to see the whole original narrative complexity of the whole piece." As to whether Tarantino has any further director's cuts in the works, he confirmed that he has a director's cut of DJANGO UNCHAINED which may see the light of day following the release of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD.

Have you watched Netflix's THE HATEFUL EIGHT mini-series yet? If so, what did you think?