If it's an early holiday present you were looking for, how about this: Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight has moved its wide theatrical release date up by one full week. While the highly anticipated Western drama will still open in limited release on Christmas Day, fans nationwide will be able to take in the three-hour epic on New Year's Day. That's seven days earlier than originally planned, with The Weinstein Company looking to reap the box office benefits of a solid holiday outing.

Deadline reports that although the wide theatrical release for the 35mm and digital print versions has been rescheduled to debut one week earlier, this won't effect the 70mm roadshow that will screen in 100 theaters around the country starting Christmas Day. The number of theaters screening the New Year's Day release has not been revealed yet, but the plan is to expand to more theaters on January 8th. Regardless of the format, fans will be able to see Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen,Demian Bichir, Bruce Dern, and Channing Tatum in The Hateful Eight very soon this holiday season.

Image via The Weinstein Company[/caption]

Here’s the official synopsis for The Hateful Eight:

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 (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason 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 (Samuel L. Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Walton 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 (Demian Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all…

Image via The Weinstein Company[/caption]

For more on The Hateful Eight, check out some of our recent coverage below: