R.I.P. Ennio Morricone (1928-2020)

On July 6, 2020 composer Ennio Morricone died at the age of 91 in Rome, Italy. Over the course of 60 years, he has been known as one of the most prolific musicians in history. With over 400 movie scores to his credit, the Oscar-winning composer is considered one of the most influential and important in his field, producing such masterpieces as The Good The Bad and The Ugly. While he never moved to America, his collaborations with various American filmmakers remain unparalleled, managing to bring their voices to life in meaningful and exciting ways. While he's gone, his endless body of work will continue to live on in meaningful and exciting ways.

Check This Out: "The Hateful Eight" Extended Edition Comes to Netflix (With a Catch!)

There's a lot of reason to have Quentin Tarantino on the brain in 2019. Along with this year marking the 25th anniversary of Pulp Fiction, he is returning to cinemas this summer with the highly anticipated Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood. Despite the barrage of reasons to celebrate, there's one that falls on the curious side, especially given that the director isn't often associated with TV miniseries. His Oscar-winning 2016 film The Hateful Eight received a lot of acclaim during its theatrical run and gave the filmmaker one of his longest running times. It's hard to imagine, but there was an even longer Roadshow cut that was hard to see outside of theaters... until Netflix. The only catch is that you'll have to watch it, albeit in a fairly butchered form.

Failed Oscar Campaigns: "The Hateful Eight" (2015)

Scene from The Hateful Eight

As awards seasons pick up, so do the campaigns to make your film have the best chances at the Best Picture race. However, like a drunken stupor, sometimes these efforts come off as trying too hard and leave behind a trailer of ridiculous flamboyance. Join me on every other Saturday for a highlight of the failed campaigns that make this season as much about prestige as it does about train wrecks. Come for the Harvey Weinstein comments and stay for the history. It's going to be a fun time as I explore cinema's rich history of attempting to matter.

Review: "The Hateful Eight" is Like a Great Dinner Mystery Show, With Bloody Results

Scene from The Hateful Eight

It's easy to forget the impact that director Quentin Tarantino made back in 1992 with Reservoir Dogs. While Pulp Fiction would take most of the credit, the film introduced an American voice that mixed stylized violence, witty dialogue, and movie references into a blender and produced an impressive heist drama that featured none of the heist. It was a small ingenuity that made him the talk of the town, causing him to get even more high concept with each passing film. However, one cannot help but think of Reservoir Dogs when watching The Hateful Eight; being reminded of how powerful Tarantino could be with limited locations. Even if his latest structurally feels like it owes some debt to his debut, it's possibly his most ambitious attempt to make a real movie with real messages beyond the blood and guts.

Tarantino Reveals Why Django Was Not in "The Hateful Eight"

Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained

With the release of director Quentin Tarantino's latest film The Hateful Eight only weeks away, it feels like a great time to pull up old retrospectives about his career. With a great ear for dialogue and some of the best stylized violence in mainstream cinema, the director has slowly built his way into being one of the most definitive voices of his generation. Among his more controversial films is 2012's Django Unchained, which starred Jamie Foxx as a freed slave who seeks revenge on his white captors in a bloody, anachronistic fashion. While these two films share relations to the western genre, there's something else that they have in common. Django almost appeared in The Hateful Eight.

Check Out the Track List for "The Hateful Eight"

Samuel L. Jackson

There's a good chance that, like most people, you are getting very exciting by the upcoming film from director Quentin Tarantino called The Hateful Eight. His second venture into western-themed storytelling is schedule for a special Christmas release, then followed by a January 2016 wide release. While there's a good chance that you likely have seen the footage and have prepared yourself, it's been awhile since we've heard anything regarding the soundtrack, which is supposed to be penned by compose Ennio Morricone. Today marks the release of the soundtrack, which features Morricone, but a few other surprises from rock and pop artists that you've likely heard. Click to find out who's on the compilation.

"The Hateful Eight" Trailer Shows Tarantino Prodding the Western Genre Back to Life

Samuel L. Jackson

It has been awhile since we last heard about director Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. While the film's production legacy has been long and storied, including rumors that Tarantino would ditch the project entirely, it has slowly been unraveling details that are sure to entice longtime fans of the director. For starters, there's the promise of an Ennio Morricone score and a run in 70 mm to look forward to. While we have seen pictures, there hasn't been any major marketing for the film... until today. They have just released the full length trailer for The Hateful Eight, which gives us our first glimpse into his latest western with an all star cast. And... it looks to be just as fun as you'd expect Tarantino's work to be.

Will "The Hateful Eight" Finally Get Morricone an Oscar?

It seems like an odd yet perfect pairing. Over the course of his past few films, director Quentin Tarantino has made a habit of borrowing music. As he has grown as an artist, he has gone on to incorporate composers into his work. One of the most prominent is legendary composer Ennio Morricone, whose music can be heard in a few of the director's work since Kill Bill: Vol. 1. Today at the San Diego Comic Con, Tarantino announced a big shocker: Morricone would be producing the director's first fully original score for his upcoming film The Hateful Eight. It is a shocker for many reasons, but it is also likely to mark a hopeful evolution as the director matures as a filmmaker.