Colorado is getting invaded by movie stars.
Quentin Tarantino’s newest western “The Hateful Eight,” tells a story of bounty hunters trying to find shelter during a snowstorm in Wyoming. However, the film will be shot completely near Telluride, Colorado.
Tarantino’s new film, with a $44 million budget, will be the largest production made in Colorado since “True Grit” in 1969.
The film is being shot on the Schmid Ranch, and a crew of 168 Colorado residents have been hired to work on the film.
The state film commissioner, Donald Zuckerman, said in an article in the Denver Post that Tarantino visited the 130-year-old ranch and “fell in love with it.” Utah and Wyoming were considered for the production, but Colorado offered the largest money incentive. Colorado’s Economic Developments Commission approved a $5 million incentive package for the production, on the grounds that it be exclusively shot in the state.
The EDC is expecting substantial tourism revenue in Telluride and Grand Junction from the press and general fans of Tarantino.
The budgets for Tarantino’s films have been steadily increasing since his directorial debut with “Reservoir Dogs,” the budget for which was only $1.2 million. “Django Unchained,” which came out in 2012, had a budget of $100 million.
Typically a director will only shoot a low-budget film if their last release underperformed at the box office. However, this is not the case with Tarantino. “Django Unchained” made over $425 million. His fan base is strong enough to allow him to shift to lower-budget films like “The Hateful Eight” without many repercussions.
“The Hateful Eight” was originally scrapped after the screenplay, written by Tarantino, was leaked online. He didn’t want to produce the film after everyone knew what it was and how it ended. But after some reworking of the script, “The Hateful Eight” is about to start production in December and is slated for a fall 2015 release.
If you were one of the few people to see Robert Rodriguez’s “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For,” then you probably saw the teaser trailer for “The Hateful Eight,” or maybe you saw a shaky video taken from a phone. The film seems to be going for a vintage feel, throwing back to Spaghetti Western themes, and being shot in 70mm “Super Cinemascope,” a style of film making which has not been used in over a decade.
Kurt Russel, Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth and Bruce Dern will star in the new film. Jennifer Lawrence is rumored to be in talks for being cast.
Westerns have become a dying breed in modern film and hopefully Tarantino’s westerns will spark new interest in the under-appreciated genre.
Collegian A&E Film Beat Writer Morgan Smith can be reached at entertainment@collegian.com or on Twitter @MDSFilms.
