Opening Christmas Day on selected markets, ‘The Hateful Eight’ is an old style western filled with the raw energy one comes to expect from director Quentin Tarantino. This film can be seen as a companion piece to ‘Django Unchained,’ and the second in what the director envisions as a Western trilogy. It’s a solid entry, and perhaps Tarantino’s most violent film. Anyone with delicate sensibilities should be prepared for shocking, powerful scenes. The outstanding cast includes Kurt Russell, Samuel Jackson, Demian Bichir, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern and Walton Goggins.

‘The Hateful Eight’ will play on 70mm in selected markets. Wide release comes January 1st with an old fashion ‘Roadshow’ that includes an overture, intermission and a program book traveling to key cities.

While it may be difficult to categorize, ‘The Hateful Eight’ can be described as a Western ‘who done it’ with a twist. The story takes place 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, the eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all… ‘The Hateful Eight’ also stars Channing Tatum, James Parks, Dana Gourrier, Zoë Bell, Gene Jones, Keith Jefferson, Lee Horsley, Craig Stark, and Belinda Owino. Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, THE HATEFUL EIGHT is produced by Richard N. Gladstein, Stacey Sher and Shannon McIntosh. Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein and Georgia Kacandes are executive producers, and Coco Francini and William Paul Clark are associate producers.