And with that, we have our HATEFUL EIGHT.
Academy Award nominee Demian Bichir (A BETTER LIFE, THE BRIDGE) has signed on to play "Bob the Mexican", the last major role that hadn't been cast.
In Tarantino's live-read, Bob the Mexican was actually "Bob the Frenchman," and was played by Denis Menochet (the farmer from the opening of INGLORIOUS BASTERDS). Menochet's thick French accent and foreign demeanor were the defining traits of that role, which has obviously been at least somewhat rewritten. I still don't think Bichir will have a ton of dialogue, but I'm thinking if an actor on his level is signing on, the part was probably beefed up somewhat from the original draft. Bichir blew me away in A BETTER LIFE and landed many of the best gags in MACHETE KILLS, as well as getting a ton of so I think he'll acquit himself to these particular surroundings nicely and do plenty with only a little dialogue.
The news also confirms that Channing Tatum will be starring in the film, though apparently not in the part I had him pegged for. I had assumed he'd be taking Walton Goggins role of Chris Mannix, but the press release from Weinstein still has Goggins listed as Mannix, so I can only figure that Tatum will pop up as James Remar's character from the live-read. It's not a central role, and was written for someone closer to Remar's age than Tatum's, but the character does serve an important function in the plot and has also probably been expanded from the first draft. Still, in the incarnation I saw, the character didn't have enough of a presence to earn Tatum a spot on the poster, which seemed to me to be a motivating factor for his hire. I guess he just really wanted to work with QT, if only for a second, like his buddy Jonah Hill.
I'm just super-stoked Walton Goggins is going to be doing his thing alongside this film's legendary roster once more. If he brings it like he brought it on stage, this could really be a career changer for him.
Even though the bigs have been cast, we still don't know who's playing the stagecoach driver, O.B (played on stage by James Parks), as well as a couple of other small roles. Stay tuned.
Here's the official press release from the brothers Weinstein:
In THE HATEFUL EIGHT, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, 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 black 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 General Sanford Smithers (Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all…
You gotta love that "six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War" bit...
We should still expect a December 2015 release for this, but nothing's in stone.
