Quentin Tarantino was gearing up to make the western The Hateful Eight his next movie, but when the script leaked online, he shut the project down (he’s also suing Gawker for leaking the script).  While he’s considering publishing a book version, Film Independent has announced that there will at least be a staged live-reading of the script (or presumably the script that was leaked; Tarantino hadn’t reached a final draft).  Tarantino is holding the event for Film Independent, “the nonprofit arts organization that produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival”.  The event will not be recorded or live streamed, but I’m glad Tarantino is at least willing to provide this reading to a live audience.  Additionally, it’s for a good cause since “all proceeds go towards supporting the year-round programing efforts of Film Independent at LACMA.”

Hit the jump for the press release, which includes the brief synopsis for The Hateful Eight.

If things had gone as planned, we’d probably be itching for the next update on Quentin Tarantino’s excellently titled new film The Hateful Eight right now while the filmmaker worked on building his cast and tweaking his script.  Instead, Tarantino has opted not to make The Hateful Eight his next film after an early draft of his script—which he provided to a handful of people in confidence—was leaked to internal channels by an agent.  Things have only gotten worse since Tarantino addressed the leak, as the script was published online late last week.  Now the filmmaker is taking legal action against Gawker Media, which posted a link to download the leaked script under a headline titled “Here Is the Leaked Quentin Tarantino Hateful Eight Script.”  Hit the jump to read on.

If you’ve yet to check out writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton‘s Short Term 12, what are you waiting for? The film hit shelves on Blu-ray/DVD on January 14th, rendering the “it’s not playing anywhere near me” excuse invalid. I had the opportunity to watch it last weekend and I was blown away. Much has been made of Brie Larson‘s performance and for good reason: it’s terrific. She’s not alone in that regard, though. The turns by Kaitlyn Dever and Keith Stanfield are nothing short of excellent and, in particular, a scene between Stanfield and John Gallagher Jr. in which Stanfield’s character, Marcus, bares his emotional scars via an original rap verse is equal parts heartbreaking and jaw-dropping. Watching Short Term 12 is an emotional roller coaster. You’ll laugh, cry, feel anger, love, hope, and despair. You’ll catch a glimpse of just how lonely a life can be and, at the same time, appreciate how opening ourselves up to the possibility of trust and love is a powerful decision that doesn’t come easily for all of us.

My Blu-ray/DVD recommendation of the week in the books, this week’s Top 5 highlights all of our Sundance 2014 coverage to date, a new trailer for The Raid 2 (including Matt’s Sundance review), Quentin Tarantino‘s The Hateful Eight script leak, a new trailer for Disney’s Maleficent, and a variety of news from the Star Wars: Episode VII camp. Keep reading for a brief recap and link to each of the above.

Some very disappointing news came earlier this week when Quentin Tarantino announced that he was no longer going to make his Western The Hateful Eight after an agent leaked his draft of the script.  It was a breach of trust, and one that Tarantino just couldn’t get over in the foreseeable future, so the filmmaker said that due to this leak, he is not moving forward with The Hateful Eight as his next film.  The project was still in its early stages, but it was already off to a promising start.  Tarantino was eyeing Bruce Dern, Tim Roth, and Michael Madsen for roles in the pic, and now yet another reason to be disappointed has surfaced: Tarantino intended to shoot the entire thing on 70mm.  Hit the jump for more.

In a strange turn of events, a little more than a week after announcing that Quentin Tarantino would be making the Western The Hateful Eight his next picture, he’s now thinking about shelving it.  Literally.  He’s considering publishing the story first and then possibly revisiting it as a film some time in the next five years.  Why?  Well, it seems that a copy of the script sent out to a small circle of actors has been leaked, and Tarantino is so distraught over that fact that he’s thinking about scrapping production plans.  Hit the jump for more.

It appears that we may have a new Quentin Tarantino film to look forward to sooner rather than later.  Just before the holidays, Tarantino revealed that his follow-up to Django Unchained would be another Western, adding, “I had so much fun doing Django, and I love Westerns so much that after I taught myself how to make one, it’s like ‘OK! Let me make another one now that I know what I’m doing.”  While the filmmaker didn’t add anymore details about the project other than the fact that he was in the process of writing the screenplay, it appears that he’s close enough to finishing the script that he’s now showing it to a handful of actors that he wants for the lead roles.  Titled The Hateful Eight, Tarantino is reportedly eyeing regular collaborator Christoph Waltz and veteran actor Bruce Dern for to star in his next film.  Hit the jump for more.

Some directors line up new projects while they’re still working on current ones, but Quentin Taratino takes his time.  While he’s been on a rate of about one film every three years since his six year hiatus between Jackie Brown and Kill Bill, the wait is till unbearable.  It’s been a year since Django Unchained, and Tarantino is still toying with what he’ll do next.  It could be Killer Crow, which might be the conclusion of a “Rewritten History” trilogy following Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. However, a few weeks ago he said his next movie will be another western, although it’s not a sequel to Django Unchained.  Whatever he settles on, it will probably never be Kill Bill: Vol. 3.  In an interview with The Independent, Tarantino says “I don’t think about Kill Bill 3 that much.”

Hit the jump for more including why Tarantino decided he changed his mind about quitting directing.

Quentin Tarantino started his feature film career with a string of crime films, but then changed gears with the eclectic mix of Death Proof, Inglourious Basterds, and Django Unchained.  Now it looks like his next movie will see him sticking to the Western genre.  During an interview on The Tonight Show, Tarantino said “I haven’t told anyone this publicly, but I will say the genre: It’s a western,” but wouldn’t go into any more details other than to say, it wouldn’t be a sequel to Django Unchained.  Tarantino explained, “I had so much fun doing Django, and I love westerns so much that after I taught myself how to make one, it’s like ‘OK! Let me make another one now that I know what I’m doing,’”

Hit the jump to check out video of the interview, and for speculation on what the Western could be.

Having missed it during its highly successful theatrical run, I made an early trip to the video store (remember those?) this past Tuesday to pick up The Purge on Blu-ray. Like many, I was intrigued by the premise of a dystopian future America in which an annual night of crime-free killing known as “The Purge” is the key to the new U.S. of A.’s unprecedented prosperity. For an elevator pitch, my last sentence is intriguing stuff that leaves you wanting to know more about the world created by writer/director James DeMonaco. Unfortunately, I found the stellar logline to be the best thing going for The Purge as a majority of the film’s execution felt flat. I cared little to nothing about the Sandin family, was taken out of the movie during long stretches of characters searching aimlessly around the house with a flashlight, and felt the pic exchanged discernible commentary on societal violence for an all-out bloodbath that was not as much scary as it was a welcomed break from said extensive flashlight searching. Final verdict? Watch The Purge for the interesting premise, but don’t expect much in the way of scares or social commentary.

All new to home video discussion aside, this week’s Top 5 is filled to the brim with Captain Phillips interviews with Tom Hanks and more, a new trailer for Ben Stiller‘s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty including Matt and Steve’s impressions of the film, 106 lost episodes of Doctor Who potentially popping up in Ethiopia, a new trailer for David O. Russell‘s American Hustle, and Quentin Tarantino‘s top 10 films of 2013 to date. As you may be expecting, a brief recap and link to each of the above awaits after the jump.

There’s no telling when we’ll see the next film from Quentin Tarantino, but the filmmaker has become quite chatty as of late with regards to what 2013 had to offer by way of new films and comic book movie news.  Last week, Tarantino revealed a list of his top 10 films of 2013 so far, and the compilation was unsurprisingly a grab bag of everything from indies to blockbusters; in addition to pics like Gravity and Frances Ha, the filmmaker included This Is the End and The Lone Ranger.  Many were a tad disappointed that Tarantino didn’t elaborate on any of his choices, but now the director has decided to comment on his list, specifically focusing on his criticisms of The Lone Ranger.  While he was at it, he also chimed in on the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman.  Hit the jump to read on.

Quentin Tarantino loves, loves, loves movies.  The filmmaker has made this abundantly clear not only through the various and obscure influences gleaned in his own films but also in his many lengthy discussions on any number of topics relating to film.  Tarantino makes a point to go to the movies as often as possible, and recently he has taken to publicly publishing a list of his Top 10 movies from each year.  He took 2012 off since he was understandably busy working on Django Unchained, but his 2011 and 2010 lists were gleefully varied, with movies like Midnight in Paris and The Social Network ranking right up there with The Three Musketeers and Jackass 3D.

It appears that Tarantino plans on publishing another full Top 10 list later this year, but he’s gotten a jump on things and released a list of his 10 favorite films of 2013 thus far.  As expected, there are more than a couple of surprising choices.  Hit the jump to take a look.

Several years ago, Colin Firth was set to play legendary producer and director Roger Corman in Joe Dante‘s biopic The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes.  The film is now back on, and the production has done a 180 when it comes to the Corman role by casting Quentin Tarantino.  The story will be about Corman directing The Trip in the 1960s, which is about LSD and starred Jack Nicholson in one of his early roles.  As Corman notes in his interview with The Telegraph, “It was very controversial but it was the only American picture invited to the Cannes Film Festival that year.”  Corman says he will be making a cameo in the film as “the executive who didn’t want me to make the film.”

Hit the jump for why Tarantino is a good choice for the role. [Update: Joe Dante says (via TOH) "there is absolutely no truth to the stories in the press and on the web that he is going to play Roger Corman in my upcoming film".  Oh well.]

For those who are upset that genre films are never recognized at the Oscars beyond sound and VFX categories, the Saturn Awards are for you.  The Saturns recognize accomplishment in sci-fi, fantasy, action, and horror for movies and TV shows that rarely receive any consideration from the Oscars and Emmys, although there is some crossover.  For example, among the TV nominees, Breaking Bad led with “Best Presentation on Television”, Best Actor for Bryan Cranston (tying with Kevin Bacon for The Following), and Best Supporting Actor for Jonathan Banks.  Over on the movie side, The Avengers netted four wins including Best Science Fiction Film, Best Director (Joss Whedon), Best Supporting Actor (Clark Gregg), and Best Visual Effects.  Among the other genre categories, Life of Pi won Best Fantasy Film, The Cabin in the Woods took home Best Horror/Thriller, and Skyfall earned Best Action/Adventure film.  Like any awards presentation, there’s bound to be debate about the winners, but it’s great that at least one long-running awards ceremony recognized Jonathan Banks and Clark Gregg.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of winners.  In the days ahead, we’ll have plenty of interviews with actors and filmmakers who attended the event.

When does self-indulgence trump talent? Plenty of directors have tested that boundary to their detriment: witness the litter of auteurial “visions” that almost destroyed the studio system in the late 1970s. Quentin Tarantino hasn’t gotten there yet. His voice shines too bright and his visions are too singular to let their increasing flabbiness bother us. But while his epic Django Unchained remains a terrific entry in his canon, one wonders how much farther it would have gone if the director could just get out of his own way. Hit the jump for my full review of Django Unchained on Blu-ray.

Will Smith was Quentin Tarantino‘s first choice to play Django in Django Unchained.  It was a great opportunity for the actor to finally take a chance in his safe career, but he decided to pass on the role.  In November, Tarantino said that while he met with Smith, “It just wasn’t 100 percent right, and we didn’t have time to try to make it that way.”  Smith is slightly notorious for coming in and rewriting scripts, but no one gets to rewrite Tarantino.

Smith has now commented on his side of the story, and why he chose to pass on the Oscar-winning picture.  Hit the jump for more.