Quentin Tarantino accuses Disney of “extortionist practices” over movie theaters.
The director of The Hateful Eight wants you to know how he really feels about the upcoming Star Wars movie. Tarantino accussed Disney of allegedly practicing extortion on Wednesday for refusing to give up the Arclight Hollywood’s famous Cinerama Dome in order to make space for a showing of his The Hateful Eight starting Christmas Day. “They are going out of their way to f— me,” said Tarantino during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show.
Disney booked the movie theater several months ago for Star Wars: The Force Awakens which starts their first showings on Thursday night and is scheduled to play at the Cinerama Dome through the holidays.
However, the production company behind The Hateful Eight has been working on a deal with Arclight to give them a the dome for The Hateful Eight, considering The Force Awakens is also showing at the TCL Chinese Theater and the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles.
“It’s vindictive, it’s mean and it’s extortion,” Tarantino said, alleging that when the Arclight theater chain tried to tell Disney higher-ups that they would be honoring a contract to show The Hateful Eight at the Cinerama Dome, the studio threatened to pull Star Wars from all Arclight locations. “It was real bad news and it fucking pissed me off,” added Tarantino.
However, according to reports, there was nevera a deal with The Hateful Eight to show the movie.
Insiders say there was never a contract to play Hateful Eight (generally speaking there are never contracts, only verbal deals). TWC has known since advance ticket sales went on sale for Force Awakens in late October that it would not get the dome, but Tarantino wasn’t informed until recently.
Instead, Hateful Eight — which held its worldwide premiere at the Cinerama Dome — will play in another auditorium at the Arclight equipped to project in 70mm film. Tarantino’s revenge Western debuts exclusively in a 70mm roadshow in 100 theaters across the country before being made available in digital formats on Dec. 31.
The director of The Hateful Eight said nothing but good things about the director of The Force Awakens saying “I love J.J.”
“I made a lot of money for the Disney corporation,” he said.
