Chris Hardwick moderates the panel for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and from the beginning, it appeared to be all about cinema, and the love of film, meaning the actual celluloid itself.

A video begins with Samuel L. Jackson talking about roadshow trailer, which explains what the hell that is. Intermission, overture, stuff like that, and traveling from town to town. Hateful Eight will get that kind of release.

11th feature thought in Ultra Panavision. Khartoum was the last film to use those lenses. Panavision was 100% onboard.

Then Hardwick brought out Quentin Tarantino and the movie talk began. Quentin loves the growth of Comic-Con, and it’s totally a place people can buy comics.

2.76:1. The exact lenses used on Ben Hur. 70mm is not just for shooting travelogues; it’s for beautiful drama.

And now, a 7 minute bit off the film cut exclusively for Hall H. (bigger description forthcoming)

Seven of the eight, minus Jackson, of course, then come out: Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern.

Russell was thrilled to be a part of it after the reading in which he took part. He sings the praises of Quentin Tarantino, but who wouldn’t.

AUDIENCE Q&A

The first question is whether there will be anime in Hateful Eight. Nope, sorry.

Then they talk about the leaked initial draft. Though Tarantino was pissed off about it, it didn’t stop his process of doing more drafts. It was just a bit more public than he would have liked.

Kill Bill 3 is a possibility.

Tarantino feels he needs to make at least three westerns to call himself a “Western Director,” and he will eventually make his third.

Original, Bichir’s character was meant to be a Frenchman but he changed it to a Mexican but couldn’t think of someone for the role. Robert Rodriguez suggested him for the role. “I love you, Robert!” says Bichir. What was on the page doesn’t really reflect what was on the page. “F*** the page!”

Roth: I just did what he told me to do. The main concern was whether he was too over the top. Tarantino: He’s basically great British character actors.

Will QT stop after 10 films? It wasn’t so much a mission statement as a discussion of an artist’s vitality. There’s an aspect he likes about that. He refuses to make movies not on film, unless he changes his mind. He likes the idea of getting out before he overstays his welcome. Digital projection is just HBO in public, so if that’s where movies go, he’ll just go to television. That’d be something!

Russell talks about playing Elvis when he was in his twenties with John Carpenter and how he went on to want to create characters who people can relate to. He takes people from his real life or from the movie business. Six different people were combined in him to create John Ruth.

Dern was cast, he says, because “The Kid” (meaning Tarantino) grew up watching me be a jerk on television. He then compares Tarantino with Visconti. He allows actors not to do their best, necessarily, but to do better. Every day on set he felt there was something that could never be done.

What’s QT’s favorite thing he’s written or said in a movie? It’s a tough one, especially with this “pressed for time” bullcrap. His favorite is the scene in the French farmhouse in Inglourious Basterds, previously the Sicilian speech in True Romance.

Tarantino announces an ORIGINAL SCORE by the wonderful, great Ennio Morricone, his first original western score in 40 years.

See you at Christmas!