Demian Bichir joins Quentin Tarantino’s “Hateful Eight”

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Weinstein Co. has announced that Demian Bichir had joined Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, one of the hottest projects at the American Film Market currently underway in Santa Monica, The Hollywood Reporter said.

The A Better Life actor joins Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Bruce Dern. Channing Tatum is also confirmed for a role in the project, although the announcement from The Weinstein Co. did not reveal what part the Foxcatcher star would play.

Most of the cast has worked with Tarantino on other projects, but it will be Leigh, Bichir and Tatum's first collaboration with the director.

The story is set six to 12 years after the Civil War in wintry Wyoming. Bounty hunter John Ruth (Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Leigh), race toward 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).

Tarantino wrote and will direct The Hateful Eight, which will shoot in Telluride. It's produced by Richard N. Gladstein, Stacey Sher and Shannon McIntosh. Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein and G. Mac Brown are executive producing, and Coco Francini and William Paul Clark are associate producers.

As THR reported, insiders say that "extreme security precautions" are in place to prevent another leak of the post-Civil War Western script while shopping it at AFM. Foreign buyers looking to invest must score an invite to read the closely guarded, revised script, and will be allowed to do so only in TWC's Beverly Hills office.

The Hateful Eight, which will be presented in 70 mm, will be released by The Weinstein Co. in 2015.

Bichir most recently starred in FX's series The Bridge for two seasons. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in A Better Life, and his recent film credits include Savages, The Heat and Machete Kills.