Channing Tatum is one of the hottest up-and-coming actors to join the “A” list actors for Quentin Tarantino‘s “The Hateful Eight“. Deadline was the first to break the exclusive news, this is what they had to say:
“The Weinstein Company has finalized the cast for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, the epic post-Civil War Western that begins shooting early next year in Telluride. As I told you was in the works yesterday, Channing Tatum has signed on for a role, and also new to the cast is Oscar nominee Demian Bichir. Both are making their first appearances in a Tarantino pic. “
Let’s have a quick look at the list of actors so far:
- Samuel L. Jackson as Major Marquis Warren
- Amber Tamblyn as Daisy Domergue
- Walton Goggins as Chris Mannix
- Michael Madsen as John Gage
- Bruce Dern as General Smithers
- James Parks as O.B. Jackson
- Zoe Bell and James Remar
Tatum is also joined by Oscar nominee Demian Bichir, who is also mentioned as a confirmed newcomer. Two time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz will not be teaming up with Tarantino for a third time after his award-winning performances in “Inglorious Basterds” and “Django Unchained.”
The script for the anticipated western flick was leaked and the project was initially canned. The story is now set to revolve around the steadily ratcheting tension that develops after a blizzard diverts a stagecoach from its route, and traps a pitiless and mistrustful group which includes a competing pair of bounty hunters, a renegade Confederate soldier, and a female prisoner in a saloon in the middle of nowhere.
Here is the official plot, courtesy of Deadline:
“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 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 Gen. Sanford Smithers (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 Weinsteins are setting their sights on a 2015 release date.
Tatum will also take on the superhero role in Marvel’s “Gambit and a math genius in a movie based on Jason Padgett’s memoir “Struck by Genius”. Comic book fans are still not convinced that Tatum is the right actor to portray the Louisiana thief; maybe Tarantino’s keen eye for talent might convince naysayers otherwise?