And Samuel L. Jackson! Big mistake to not mention Samuel L. Jackson.
“Move a little strange,” he says in between close-ups of the whacky regulars we’ve come to look forward to in Quentin Tarantino films, “you’re going to get a bullet — not a warning, not a question… a bullet.”
Don’t fuck with Samuel L. Jackson.
Anyway, the trailer for the director’s eighth film sets the scene:
[S]et six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (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 (Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (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 (Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all.
In the case of this movie, Telluride plays the “wintry Wyoming landscape,” and puts in a mighty good performance from the looks of the trailer. And the town got paid for that performance.
According to The Denver Post, “[f]rom October through February, Tarantino filmed part of his $44 million feature film in Telluride. His crew — close to 170 people — booked 9,000 room nights during the production. The moviemakers dined, shopped and even skied with specially created ‘Hateful 8’ ski passes.”
The initial budget had crew earnings at $15.7 million and lodging and dining revenue at about $9.35 million. But that was the initial budget.
“The crew anchored their filming at a 900-acre ranch on Wilson Mesa outside of Telluride,” Jason Blevins wrote for the Post. “While waiting for that snow in mid-February during the prolonged warming spell that plagued resorts across the state, Tarantino, Jackson and crew members held a ‘ski burn’ — torching plywood slats shaped like skis — in hopes of spurring snowfall.”
The gods were listening; two feet of snow mid-production led to them going $10 million over budget. The biggest perk from this snowfall might have very well been at local shop Telluride Tire, where cast and crew spent $140,000 on studded and snow tires.
That was then, during production. No telling what will come in the way of residual effects from the actual movie itself. That being said, whether tourism goes through the roof or not, I’ll definitely be watching this modern take on the Spaghetti Western the weekend it comes out, unless its snowing of course, ’cause then I’ll be on the mountain.
GET IN, BOYS!
