Just this past week, Quentin Tarantino‘s screenplay for his new western, The Hateful Eight, was leaked online much to the director’s (and the world’s) dismay and wrath. His recourse? To flat out cancel the entire movie. Sorry, fans. It was a wrap before it was even shot, and now no one will get to see Tim Roth in a cowboy hat.
Not to be discouraged though, Tarantino told Deadline recently that he is already hard at work on another project, this one (rumors have it) revolving around the case of actor Robert Blake. Blake, who starred in the 1970’s TV series Baretta, was accused of murdering his wife back in 2001. He was ultimately acquitted, but a civil case brought forth by Blake’s own children found him liable for his wife’s death, and Blake ended up spending more than a year in prison.
Tarantino has not confirmed any of this yet himself, but The Wrap claims that he’s been studying the details of Blake’s case and writing a “prison movie of sorts.”
A prison movie? “Of sorts”? What can that mean when we’re talking about Quentin Tarantino?
It’s hard to guess which direction the director would go with a prison based film. In retrospect, it’s somewhat surprising he hasn’t made one already, given how virtually all of his characters are criminals of one type or another. The prison film is a rich genre with a whole heap of its own tropes, conventions and characters, the very stuff Tarantino loves to play with. But how will Blake’s case play into it, if at all?
We can’t be sure of anything until Tarantino himself speaks up on the matter. And it’s probably best that we wait. We mere mortals have no way of predicting what can come out of that man’s mind.
Still, what/who would you like to see in a Quentin Tarantino prison movie?