Quentin Tarantino enlists stars to stage live reading of leaked script

Director Quentin Tarantino rounded up some of his most famous collaborators including Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell to participate in a live reading of his leaked script The Hateful Eight on Saturday (19Apr14).

In January (14), the Pulp Fiction filmmaker scrapped plans to shoot the Western after an early draft of his screenplay made its way online without his permission.

Despite the axe, Tarantino teamed up with organizers at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Film Independent program to oversee a one-night live reading, starring Jackson, Russell, Amber Tamblyn, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Bruce Dern, who have all appeared in at least one of Tarantino's films.

At the the event at the Ace Hotel, Tarantino fit the bill by donning a black cowboy shirt and hat and told the crowd, "After the script was leaked I had no desire to make it... I'm working on a second draft and I will do a third draft, but we're reading from the first draft. The (script's) Chapter 5 here will not be the Chapter 5 later, so this will be the only time it is seen ever."

The saga, set in a snowy Wyoming a few years after the American Civil War, was performed across three hours, with Tarantino reading stage directions and even stopping actors to re-read lines or "stick to the page" if they started to stray from the script.

Tickets to the event were sold for $150 to $200, with all proceeds benefiting Film Independent.