Quentin Tarantino Suing Gawker Over Shelved 'Hateful Eight' Script Leak

If Quentin Tarantino was angry when his latest movie script, Hateful Eight, was passed around in the film industry of Hollywood, you can bet he's totally furious now that website Gawker has leaked the whole thing to anyone online.

Quentin Tarantinno Is Taking Legal Action After Gawker Leaked His Full Script.

Describing the site's move as "predatory journalism," the director is suing Gawker Media after it made a download link to the 146 page script publically available in an article entitled "Here Is the Leaked Quentin Tarantino Hateful Eight Script."

Last week, Deadline published an article with Tarantino during which he explained that after handing out his movie script to only six people he thought he could trust, his long-time agent Mike Simpson began getting phone calls from agents looking to pitch their clients for roles and the furious director felt compelled to shut the whole project down.

The Director Pulled The Plug On 'Hateful Eight' After An Early Version Of The Script Leaked.

After describing himself as "very, very depressed," the Django Unchained filmmaker identified his main suspect in the betrayal as the agent of Nebraska actor Bruce Dern out of the three actors he shared his script with, the other two being Michael Madsen and Tim Roth. The leak and unwanted attention it brought Tarantino caused the director to shelve the script, with a plan to release it in bookshops.

He admits that his dramatic decision was a result of feeling betrayed and not wanting bloggers to evaluate his work before he'd had chance to begin turning it into a movie. However, the director did admit that he could possibly change his mind if he starts feeling differently about the events. "If the muse calls me later to do it, we'll do it [...] It's my baby," he said. "I could totally change my mind; I own the f***ing thing." It is not known whether Gawker's large-scale leak of the script will have affected the likelihood of the film being eventually made.

Could Bruce Dern's Agent Have Had A Hand In The Initial Leak?

The Wrap, one of the first news outlets to get hold of the script, lamented that there was a chance that the movie - likened to a "tense stage play" - would never have come to fruition. Tarantino is said to have created roles in the ensemble western for some of his favourite actors, including Madsen, Samuel L Jackson, and Christoph Waltz.

Tarantino's suit reads: "Gawker Media has made a business of predatory journalism, violating people's rights to make a buck. This time they went too far. Rather than merely publishing a news story reporting that Plaintiff's screenplay may have been circulating in Hollywood without his permission, Gawker Media crossed the journalistic line by promoting itself to the public as the first source to read the entire Screenplay illegally," via The Guardian.