Quendrith Johnson

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by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent

Saturday night, April 19, 2014, Quentin Tarantino will unleash his "'leaked" (and possibly "shelved") new screenplay "The Hateful Eight" in a staged table reading for charity. Hosted by Film Independent at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and sponsored by The New York Times,  the event was scheduled for the the 24th, but there was a venue change. Slated for The Bing Theater at LACMA, a last-minute change was made in favor of The Theater at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles at 929 South Broadway.

The date, April 19, also marks the end of the 51 day standoff in Waco, Texas, almost 20 years ago; this is likely a coincidence, but with Tarantino's unique flare for the dramatic, one never knows. Regardless, this highly public airing/nose thumbing is the happy news in an otherwise grueling duel between Tarantino and Nick Denton, founder of Gawker Media. Denton is being sued by the auteur for posting a link to a site (redacted so as not to give any credit to them) that published unauthorized pages allegedly from a purloined copy. 

Incidentally, Nick Denton, who is based in New York and has a unique flair for dramatic news coverage himself, was just named to The Hollywood Reporter's Most Powerful Media figures in New York, along with 35 others. The list includes broadcast brights like Jimmy Fallon, as well as a handful of online heavyweights.

And despite a motion on April 3 to dismiss the case by Gawker, citing Tarantino's general dislike of the site's coverage in general with this being only a link-to-a-link tangent in the theft issue, the filing remains on the docket.

Why is this important?

Because QT, as he is known, is mightily pissed off. He even hired "raging bull" entertainment attorney Martin Singer of Lavely & Singer, who has repped Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kelsey Grammer, to crack the litigative whip for him. Singer is known for going after talent agencies, and there is a belief that this script might have had its path to daylight from the inner offices of someone repping the actors QT approached to star in the Hateful. 

Those actors were said to include the amazing Christoph Waltz (made a star from QT's own Inglourious Basterds). Fingers were pointed in Bruce Dern's direction, or that of his management, at one point, according to Deadline.com. 

Deadline, founded by Nikki Finke, has carried most of the exclusives on this developing saga.

In fact, if you scroll through the comments on Mike Fleming's advance on casting for Hateful the week of the Golden Globes, the most remarkable part is what the commenters have to say. As in "Always exciting for a new Tarantino script. Anyone know where the PDF can be had?" Answered by "hahaha, What's sad is that you're serious." Topped off by "His last four scripts were leaked during this time of talent shopping. It's a valid request." 

These seemingly joking comments were posted by readers on Jan. 11 in response to Fleming's coverage.

Ten days later, Tarantino gave Fleming an "Exclusive: Learning today that his script 'The Hateful Eight' leaked after he gave it to a small circle of actors, Quentin Tarantino tells me that he is so upset that he will not direct that film next." The post goes on to report that QT has decided to publish instead of produce it, naming Reggie Hudlin, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, as well as Dern or their representing agencies as possible weak links on security of his intellectual property.

The fact that he names names is one thing, but the idea that this gullet-ripping screenwriter is "upset" is quite another thing. 'Upset' is what happens when someone rear-ends your car in a parking lot, which is not the tone QT has established here. In other words, he is clearly out for blood. Titled "The Hateful Eight," the angry auteur gets an insider slang moniker 'The Hateful Ape.' (Hey, writers are like that, typical pun warfare tactics.)

Next you hear hand wringers lament 'Tarantino was going to shoot it in 70mm.' In other words, it was going to be great; but somebody stole his thunder and now they will pay.

Next it turns out that Bruce Dern is represented by CAA, and Tarantino reportedly suspects CAA - thus he hires Marty Singer, a guy who went after CAA for Kelsey Grammer.

By Jan. 27, as mentioned, the 33-page filing "Quentin Tarantino v Gawker Media, LLC" hits the books.

Meanwhile, in another online incursion, on that exact date, Indiewire actually posts a crossed-out-by-the-auteur. A sensational single-page from said script, ostensibly as part of their trial filing coverage, which reveals a few character names in the star-crossed Western. Hello "Oswaldo," "Domergue," "Dolly," and "John Ruth." More notably, it is clear that Quentin Tarantino types at the speed of lower case caps on "i" - like he must have been on a roll.

Indiewire's Jane Bernstein mostly quotes Deadline, Gawker, and The Hollywood Reporter in a recap timeline, but the PDF inserted real page used for art  is like another huge hammer blow to this emerging and battered masterpiece.

Dramatic flourishes aside, there is something to be admired in Tarantino's litigious lashing out here. Although blaming the media is always good for the flyover states, not so much here in Los Angeles, he seems to be more in the way of making a statement for intellectual property rights in the gunslinging age of online proliferation of nearly any document.

Not only to the tune of a $1 M USD law suit filed Jan. 27, 2014, but because he is making a stand for screenwriters in general. 

Historically the joke goes: "the starlet was so dumb she slept with the writer," meaning, despite its unfortunate sexist brio, that writers are known to be the lowest power rung on the Hollywood ladder.

Unless you are Quentin Tarantino, apparently. 

One year from the filing, on Jan. 27, 2015, the Honorable Judge John F. Walter will decide in Los Angeles, as this is not a jury trial but a straight up decision by gavel.

Tickets go on sale tonight, April 16, 2014, for the general public - members of Film Independent LACMA Film Club, and the New York Times Film Club had an advance buy on April 11, and may have fished out the pond. But this is a must-see event, a "World Premiere" for anyone interested in the business of film, film writing, and just being party to the O.K. Corral at 8 pm on April 19 at The Theater in the Ace Hotel, 929 South Broadway, in downtown LA brought to you by Quentin Tarantino, who is among the greatest living screenwriter/directors.

(See http://filmindependent.org for tickets or just Google it.)

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