What a nice Christmas Eve treat from Quentin Tarantino and the Weinstein Company. Last night, Deadline had the great privilege of hosting a 40-minute conversation with the publication’s Pete Hammond, Quentin Tarantino, and Paul Thomas Anderson. The subject: mostly an affectionate talk about the power of 70MM exhibition, Cinerama, and Tarantino’s UltraPanavision-shot western, “The Hateful Eight.” Filmed in Tarantino’s house, in his private screening room, the conversation also covered the 2012 release of Anderson’s “The Master,” and how both filmmaker used 70mm counterintuitively, shooting mostly interiors and confined and cramped spaces.
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As Anderson said, if they keep “blabbing” about celluloid, formats like IMAX and 70MM, and make releases like “The Hateful Eight” events, film has a chance of sticking around. Tarantino notes that the near death of shooting on film was a decision made without filmmakers, and a conversation that only happened with studios and film development companies like Kodak and Fuji. Two summers ago, celluloid for movies was on its deathbed, but Tarantino said thanks to Christopher Nolan, who “rallied the troops” like him and Anderson, a group of filmmakers went to all the major studios and made the case for them to invest in film and Kodak.
So as Tarantino says, celluloid is currently in a “reprieve” period, but the battle against DCP projection is not over. But as the filmmaker says, with 100 theaters being refurbished with 70MM projectors, the move is an investment in the future. Tarantino noted that Christopher Nolan is coming up next and we presume that means he’ll likely be shooting some or all of his film in some panoramic format as well (the project is currently secret and under wraps). There was also briefly talk of Anderson’s next film, but no details were given, nor any clues as to what format he’d shoot on. It’s a conversation to essentially celebrate the film format, and aside from Anderson not getting in as many words in edge-wise as he probably should, it’s still a pretty good discussion. Watch below. “The Hateful Eight” roadshow in 70MM begins today and the film in regular release begins on December 31.
