Viggo Mortensen Explains Why He Passed on Quentin Tarantino's 'The Hateful Eight'
Quentin Tarantino's latest movie, The Hateful Eight, is currently in production with filming already taken place in Colorado. We reported a few months back that Tarantino had been seen meeting with Viggo Mortensen in a restaurant supposedly talking this movie. But, when the cast unveiled, Mortensen's name was nowhere to be seen. Now, he has revealed the reasons why he passed on the offer.
Whilst speaking with Grantland recently, Mortensen divulged into the motives behind rejecting such a tempting offer, "Yeah, we did meet," said Mortensen. "And that was an example of what I was talking about with small movies. All of last fall, I traveled non-stop. I was on a plane every two days to promote Jauja (his latest movie) and Far From Men. I knew as a producer and an actor that I needed to do that for those movies to have a chance to be seen. Tarantino wanted to start shooting at the end of the year and do rehearsals before that, and I just couldn’t do that schedule wise. That’s the only reason I passed. It would have been really, really fun to work with him. I think he’s really smart and funny. I’d never sat down and talked to him that much, although I did audition for Reservoir Dogs, which he remembered."
The Hateful Eight is written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, and stars Channing Tatum, Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Googgins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Madsen and Tim Roth. It is currently in production and is scheduled for a December 2015 release.
