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Like every season of the hit HBO Mike White series "The White Lotus," the Thailand-set third season featured some terrific character actors giving scene-stealing turns as some of the show's most over-the-top characters yet. One of season 3's biggest standouts was Walton Goggins as Rick Hatchett, a visitor to The White Lotus on a quest for vengeance, and the fact that he was a standout should come as no real surprise to fans of the charismatic actor. Over his career thus far, Goggins has made a name for himself by completely disappearing into his roles and giving them his all, no matter how big or small the part. One has to look no further than his guest spot on the NBC sitcom "Community" to understand his incredible talent for committing to the bit. Heck, he even pushed past his own severe phobia of snakes to shoot a terrifying scene in "The White Lotus,...

Steady character actors are often some of the most unsung heroes of film and television, providing a consistent presence that can anchor a narrative and provide easy visual language for an audience to latch onto. Occasionally, some character actors are able to transcend to leading performances themselves, showing their abilities beyond being a more background player in a film or TV show.

Walton Goggins made his mark playing small roles in huge films, until he began taking more leading roles in television in the late 2010s and 2020s. His performances show his range as both a dramatic and comedic actor, and prove that an actor can have a huge impact in even the smallest of roles.

Sons of Anarchy Saw Walton Goggins Play a Transgender Character

The rise of cable television producing original programming to compete with network TV led to some of the greatest dramas of all time, including...

Former ESPN NBA insider Adrian “Woj” Wojnarowski, who retired from the sports channel in September to become general manager of the men’s basketball program at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure, has revealed that his departure from ESPN followed a diagnosis of prostate cancer.

The disclosure came in an interview with Sports Illustrated‘s Chris Mannix. Wojnarowski said the diagnosis of early-stage cancer was made in March and that the cancer is “pretty limited in scope.” Although he has suffered no symptoms, he continues to undergo quarterly checkups.

“When you hear, you think about it going through your body like Pac-Man,” Wojnarowski says in the interview. “Prostate cancer, it generally stays confined to your prostate and is typically slow-growing.”

Wojnarowski did not rule out the possibility of future surgery and said that ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro was “great but added that “the only reason to stay was the money.

The already star-studded cast of Django Unchained nearly featured Kurt Russell in a substantial role. After starring as the psychotic driver in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, and before teaming up again with The Hateful Eight to play the likable bounty hunter John Ruth, Russell was originally meant to appear in Django Unchained as a much more sinister character.

In the original script for Django Unchained, Russell was meant to play Ace Woody, who worked under the main antagonist Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), and trained slaves to fight to the death. He would have been one of many who justly fell to Django's righteous vengeance as another deeply evil character working to maintain Candyland. Russell no doubt has the acting chops to portray such a vicious character, but perhaps the role was just doomed from the start, considering the amount of changes that happened behind the scenes.

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Walton Goggins makes even the most bizarre roles feel approachable, like The Ghoul in Fallout. Fallout showcases Walton Goggins's mastery of both drama and dark comedy, Fallout takes great care to showcase Goggins' warmth as a performer and ability to generate sympathy.

Fallout is one of the year's biggest surprises. On paper, the series is just another example of the increasingly popular post-apocalypse genre on television. However, Jonathan Nolan's take on the Fallout franchise has proven to be one of Amazon Prime's most popular shows. A deft blend of delightful wackiness and somber imagery, the series stands out against a slew of similar properties. Much of Fallout's success can be attributed to The Ghoul, a hideously grotesque yet undeniably charismatic mutant bounty hunter. He's a fan favorite, but a role that demands an actor of unique talent. Walton Goggins has proven perfect for the part.

For the past 20 years,...

Walton Goggins, the ghoulish antihero of Prime Video's Fallout series, has become an unexpected sex symbol with the show's success.

Undoubtedly, the reason is the character of Ghoul. Goggins combines a hardened survivalist's anarchic mind with a Hollywood cowboy's rustic stoicism.

He feels like Ronald Reagan channeling John Wayne, like a man at the end of his days who sticks around for one more horseback ride.

The resignation in his attitude drives his character, not to mention the characters around him who react to his infamy and monstrous appearance. He's the new face of anarchy and arguably the first mainstream character to embody the spirit of anarchy with such a genteel facade.

You must be in love with Cooper Howard, aka The Ghoul, because you've seen Walton Goggin's face many times.

He's been in countless movies since the 1990s, usually playing morally confused or at least ambiguous characters. He has...

Quick Links The Hateful Eight Offers No Redeemable Main Characters Fallouts Walton Goggins Delivers a Timeless Performance Jennifer Jason Leigh Offers One of the Most Underrated Performances in The Hateful Eight The Hateful Eights Morbid Ending Still Manages To Satisfy

While not Quentin Tarantino's only Western film, The Hateful Eight is a special case when it comes to the popular genre. Many Western films may feature characters of a certain moral code -- many of whom dont always lean toward the virtuous -- but The Hateful Eight features an array of complex characters that span the entire spectrum of morality. It's very much worth exploring these characters, the actors who brought them to life, and the unique brand of storytelling that only Tarantino could have implemented in this particular film.

The Hateful Eight officially does away with the trope of a stoic hero doing the best by his peers.

The protagonist of the comic book-based The Crow saga, Eric Draven is one of the most iconic fictional antiheroes of all time. Created by James O’Barr back in 1989, he was initially played by the late Brandon Lee in the 1994 film of the same name, which became a massive cult classic.

Over the years, it spawned three more installments in the film series till 2005. But then the franchise was once again announced to be resurrected in 2008, and Jason Momoa became the final contender to play the lead in the remake by 2016.

Eric Draven in the comics

However, Momoa’s tenure as the antihero was cut short due to an unexpected exit from the movie, and the role of Draven was passed on to Bill Skarsgård, who recently got the trailer released for his film and will soon be seen in the upcoming reboot.

But there’s a twist here: The test...

The murder mystery has been one of the most prevalent movie subgenres of the last 20 or so years, especially recently, with the Knives Out series and Kenneth Branagh's Hercule Poirot franchise performing well at the box office and cultivating a strong fan base. Given that renowned filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is the modern-day master of making genre films for the masses, it should come as no surprise that he took advantage of this growing trend with The Hateful Eight in 2015.

The wintry Western flick earned legendary composer Ennio Morricone his first Academy Award for Best Original Score, while the movie also received two additional Oscar nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Supporting Actress for Jennifer Jason Leigh. Featuring a star-studded cast, engaging dialogue, and over-the-top violence, The Hateful Eight is not only one of Tarantino's most underrated films, but it's also the best murder mystery of the 21st century.

Quentin Tarantino got the stagecoach wheels rolling on The Hateful Eight when he announced it less than one year after Django Unchained hit theaters. In fact, the announcement wasn’t the only thing that was close. The Hateful Eight actually started as a sequel to Django, with parts of it stemming from an abandoned novelization of his revisionist western.

For this western, Tarantino would use western TV show tropes–chiefly the bottle episodes where a band of vigilantes took the lead hostage–as a launching point. He thought, “What if I did a movie starring nothing but those characters? No heroes…Just a bunch of nefarious guys in a room, all telling backstories that may or may not be true. Trap those guys together in a room with a blizzard outside, give them guns, and see what happens.” And what happened was a lot of anger, a lot of snow and a lot of vomit.

Through six seasons exploring the thin line between law enforcement and the criminals they chase, FX's "Justified" introduced a handful of villains for U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) to hunt down across the rough-and-tumble Kentucky landscape. Memorable turns by Margo Martindale as the whip-smart bootlegger Mags Bennett and Michael Rapaport as the conniving, drug-dealing Daryl Crowe Jr. helped populate the series with threatening characters that always wound up being much more clever than you might expect. Sam Elliott also made a rare turn as the legendary gangster Avery Markham in the final season. Eight new episodes are on the horizon with the upcoming "Justified: Prime Evil," which will see Raylan testing his old cowboy ways in the city of Detroit, where he will be pitted against a new adversary known as "The Oklahoma Wildman" (Boyd Holbrook). 

Raylan's true nemesis, however, will always be Boyd Crowder, a redeemed...

In its initial opening weekend, "Creed III" genuinely knocked out box office expectations (and records), its competition, and prior "Rocky" first weekends all in one punch. This third franchise entry sees Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) confronted by his past in the form of childhood-friend-turned-enemy Damian "Dame" Anderson (Jonathan Majors). Following an early situation that left Dame locked up while Adonis got away, Dame reemerges after almost two decades' incarceration with dreams of restoring his once-promising early boxing career. It's yet another memorable performance from the electric Majors in bringing Dame to life, alongside Michael B. Jordan expanding the "Creed" universe as both filmmaker and star. 

While "Creed III" certainly boasts great performances and stunningly executed fights, one of its greatest elements is the film's attention to detail, showcasing the filmmakers' love for and knowledge of the sport of boxing. Woven into Dame's arc, character, style, and fighting habits are...

The Hateful Eight is a typically violent movie by Quentin Tarantino, and even though the film has two survivors, Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins) and Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), it's doubtful that they actually survived at all. The 2015 movie is a much smaller and more isolated release than the usual epics from the celebrated filmmaker, as it's mostly set in a haberdashery during a blizzard in the midst of the Civil War. Several bandits, bounty hunters, veterans, and other shady characters take refuge in the haberdashery, and it inevitably leads to absolute bloodshed with almost every character getting brutally murdered.

As is the case with most Tarantino-directed movies, The Hateful Eight is full of uncompromising violence, and over the course of its almost three-hour runtime, Tarantino flexes his penmanship by coming up with some memorable deaths. Daisy Domergue is hanged with a makeshift noose, O.B. Jackson is poisoned,...

After watching a Quentin Tarantino movie, there's always a good chance you will walk away from it with an unanswered question or two. In "Pulp Fiction," it's never revealed what was in the glowing briefcase Jules and Vern pick up at the film's beginning. "Reservoir Dogs" leaves the fate of Mr. Pink ambiguous at the end of the film, never outright confirming the character's death. In "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," the circumstances surrounding the death of Cliff Booth's wife are left a mystery (unless you read the novelization). Tarantino has seemingly struck a delicate balance when crafting the world of his films. Either the director creates intricate and highly detailed backstories that leave no stone unturned (the Rick Dalton biography speaks for itself), or he prefers to leave select details entirely up to interpretation.

"The Hateful Eight" is a prime example of the latter, as the Western thriller...

To say that the bulk of the almost three-hour western, The Hateful Eight, is set in one open room, it has resulted in an enormous amount of theories from fans of Quentin Tarantino. Despite being such an isolated movie, the filmmaker had turned Minnie’s Haberdashery into a giant mystery box.

Related: The Hateful Eight: 5 Ways It's Better As A Netflix Miniseries (& 5 Ways It's Worse)

Whether it’s theories over whether or not the Lincoln letter is real or whether or not Chris Mannix was actually the next sheriff of Redrock, the movie has had fans in a frenzy and coming to their own conclusions. From connections to other Tarantino movies to theorizing over the title of the film, there are some ingenious hypotheses, but there are some that are just absurd.

I was happy to see that an extended version of Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight was released on Netflix. What I wasn’t expecting was that it would be split up into a four-part miniseries! Each part runs about 50 minutes long.

The four episodes are titled, “Last Stage to Red Rock” (50 minutes), “Minnie’s Haberdashery” (51 minutes), “Domergue’s Got A Secret” (53 minutes), and “The Last Chapter” (56 minutes). For those of you who don’t want to do any math, the total length of the film is 210 minutes. The original cut had a run-time of 168 minutes.

I’m not sure why Netflix decided to break it up into four parts. Maybe for people who don’t want to watch it in one sitting? This extended cut of the film was released in select theaters for a brief time, which I wish I would have been able to see, but at...

Image Source: Marvel

If you're still struggling to figure out who exactly the character of Sonny Burch is in the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp film, we totally understand - he's new to the Marvel big screen, after all. In the Marvel comic books, Burch is the chairman of Cross Technologies, the weapons firm run by Darren Cross (otherwise known as supervillain Yellowjacket). Since Yellowjacket seemingly dies at the end of Ant-Man, we're guessing that Sonny Burch will be filling his shoes. However, if you're still not sure who the actor is behind Sonny Burch, then we've got issues.

Related: Who Is The Wasp? Janet van Dyne's Origin Is Full of So Many Twists and Turns

Even if the name Walton Goggins doesn't ring a bell, this definitely isn't the first time you've seen him on screen. In the past few years alone, Goggins has collaborated with both Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg.

For Walton Goggins, the worst part of transforming into Lee Russell wasn’t getting frosted tips; it was covering them up.

Don’t be misled: Goggins didn’t care much for the look (“It’s a lot to live with”). But one night during production of the HBO comedy “Vice Principals,” he went out to dinner in Charleston, South Carolina with a few members of the team, including co-star (and co-creator) Danny McBride and his director, David Gordon Green. Though it went against his set of manners, Goggins just couldn’t bring himself to sport his character’s famous blonde highlights in public.

“I grew up in the South, and you don’t wear hats inside of restaurants,” Goggins said in an interview with IndieWire. “But for me, when I wasn’t working, I want my hat, man. I didn’t want to be Lee Russell when I wasn’t working.

A new film from Quentin Tarantino is never anything short of an event. For his eighth film, The Hateful Eight, he insisted on it being shot in 65mm using Ultra Panavision then arranged with the Weinstein Company to go back in time and release a roadshow version of the film. That is, the 70mm version would play in select theaters and become a Must See film.

The movie is wonderfully cast and beautifully shot with award-winning music from Ennio Morricone. But this is the first time I can say with genuine feeling that I was bored to tears.

Eight people find themselves waiting out a blizzard in an out of the way location, Minnie’s Haberdashery, and no one is as they appear which we learn over the course of two and a half tedious hours. While in some ways this is a thematic sequel to the far superior Django Unchained,...

Did Quentin Tarantino stumble this time out? His tale of western killers sharing a snowbound cabin builds almost zero suspense, and the verbal excess and violent grossness lack Tarantino's usual clever, wickedly funny edge. And 70mm cooped up in a dim interior? It's A Long Day's Journey into Lincoln Logs. Totally dig Jennifer Jason Leigh and Ennio Morricone, though. The Hateful Eight Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD Anchor Bay / Weinstein 2015 / Color / 2.76 widescreen (Ultra Panavision 70) / 187 min. / Street Date March 29, 2016 / 39.99 Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Bruce Dern, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Roth, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Michael Madsen, James Parks, Dana Gourrier, Zoë Bell, Lee Horsley, Gene Jones, Channing Tatum. Cinematography Robert Richardson Film Editor Fred Raskin Original Music Ennio Morricone Production Design Yohei Taneda Produced by Richard N. Gladstein, Shannon McIntosh, Stacey Sher Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Quentin Tarantino's opening title sequence card announces...

With a filmography that spans nearly 40 years, Demi&#225n Bichir has had more than his fair share of ups and downs throughout his career. In the mid-80s, he moved to New York and then Los Angeles to pursue his craft, but he was eventually drawn back to Mexico, where he became one of his home country's biggest box office stars. He won an Ariel Award, the Mexican equivalent of an Oscar, for his role in 'Til Death in 1994, and his 1999 blockbuster Sex, Shame and Tears became the highest-grossing movie in the country's history. While he was a bona fide star in Mexico, he would only gain the attention of American audiences nearly a decade later

His portrayal of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in 2008's Che (Part 1) and Che (Part 2) helped put Demi&#225n Bichir on one Hollywood map, as well as his portrayal of Tijuana mayor/drug kingpin Esteban Reyes on Showtime's Weeds.

The Hateful Eight is coming home on Digital HD and Blu-ray!

Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight arrives on Digital HD March 15 and Blu-ray™ Combo Pack, DVD and On Demand March 29 from Anchor Bay. The eighth film, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, stars Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Roth and Walton Goggins in a western that Richard Roeper of The Chicago Sun-Times called “one of the best movies of the year.”

Anchor Bay Entertainment and The Weinstein Company are proud to present the home entertainment release of the eighth film by two-time Academy Award® winner Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained, Pulp Fiction). Shot entirely on 70mm and featuring a Golden Globe® and BAFTA® award-winning score by Oscar® winner Ennio Morricone (Bugsy, The Mission) The Hateful Eight “absolutely delivers on the sheer moment-to-moment pleasures fans have come to expect -- from dynamite dialogue to powder-keg confrontations,...

Ennio Morricone accepts an Honorary Academy Award during the 79th Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CA, on Sunday, February 25, 2007.

The Weinstein Company has released a 7-minute video from the actual recording session of L’Ultima Diligenza per Red Rock (versione integrale) from The Hateful Eight.

Featuring the legendary composer, Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight is nominated for 3 Academy Awards this year, including Best Original Score.

In The Hateful Eight, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), race towards 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 (Samuel L. Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter,...

Just in case you didn’t get enough hatefulness from these eight characters during the three hours and seven minutes they were on screen, Neca has revealed their line of Hateful Eight retro clothed action figures. Each figure stands 8 inches, is fully articulated, comes with character specific accessories, and is inspired by the cool toy lines from the 1970s. Neca is promising to do only one production run of 3000 each, so if you want one, you’d better jump on them fast. I’ve included more information from the manufacturer and photos below. Be super sure to check out the disclaimer at the bottom, because it’s my favorite part.

The figures run from $34.99 to $44.99, and you can pre-order six of the eight right here. (I don't know why the other two aren't available. Perhaps they hit their pre-order quota.)

For Quentin Tarantino’s eighth movie, we have a special treat for fans!

The latest film from director Quentin Tarantino, the snowbound western The Hateful Eight, hasn.t been as big a hit as the filmmaker or The Weinstein Company hoped, but it.s pretty awesome. The script is full of characters with shadowy motivations and stories, and our perception of them changes the more we learn. As much as we do find out, however, Tarantino doesn.t parse out everything, leaving some mysteries to linger. Throughout, Walton Goggins. character, Chris Mannix, claims to be the new sheriff of Red Rock, but we never find out one way or another if that.s the truth or bluster. One person that knows is Goggins himself, and the actor recently chimed in on the matter. To be honest, Goggins doesn.t actually give a concrete answer one way or another, so if you absolutely must know, sorry, you.re going to leave frustrated. Talking to...

Well, hello there baby, you look so beautiful," Walton Goggins purrs, leaning forward and suddenly going into full-on loverman mode. "Look at you, all done up in that white dress and those white shoes. This is a proper get-up, my dear. You look hot!" The 44-year-old actor is sitting in a downtown Manhattan restaurant, his face hovering inches away from a plate of Burrata; he was sold on the appetizer after being told it's "like Mozzarella's sexier cousin," so he's now whispering sweet nothings at the cheese with an intensity and seductiveness that's almost frightening.

Inexcusably self-indulgent. Tarantino gratifies his enormous self-love and his amusement at his own genius at the expense of all else. I’m “biast” (pro): loved Tarantino’s last two films…

I’m “biast” (con): …but really hate some of his films, too

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Damn. So after the marvels of Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino has swung back to the Kill Bill style of filmmaking, which I described in my review of Basterds as a cinematic “circle jerk in which he and his fans get off on one another and how clever they all are to be such rapacious film geeks.” With the inexcusably self-indulgent The Hateful Eight, Tarantino has returned to the gratification of his enormous self-love and his amusement at his own genius at the expense of all else.

There are no characters to like in Eight.

An enthusiastic Quentin Tarantino with Six of The Hateful Eight: Tim Roth, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir and Bruce Dern Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

At the brunch, introduced by Harvey Weinstein and Uma Thurman and following the discussion with Samuel L Jackson, Walton Goggins and Jennifer Jason Leigh of Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, I spoke with the man who may or may not be the new sheriff of Red Rock about Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad And The Ugly with Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach and the Golden Globe winning composer Ennio Morricone. Goggins, who was in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln with Bill Raymond and Daniel Day-Lewis, had a special treat for us. Weinstein had Django Unchained star Leonardo DiCaprio on his mind when he noted that Alejandro González Iñárritu's Golden Globe winner The Revenant was experiencing the same global warming in Vancouver,...

Walton Goggins is familiar to most of the entertainment-consuming public as either Boyd Crowder from Justified or Venus Van Dam from Sons of Anarchy, both meaty roles on long-running TV shows with dedicated followings. But thanks to the efforts of Quentin Tarantino, Goggins may henceforth be known for his much-lauded performance as Chris Mannix, the supposed sheriff-to-be who ends up playing a pivotal role in The Hateful Eight, currently playing in a theater near you. Vulture caught up with Goggins to talk texting with the Hateful Eight cast, why Tarantino is like an "oasis," and the difference between playing a character over two hours and playing them for an entire season.How’s it going?Look at the smile on my face. You seem pretty happy.I’m really happy, man. Like, anyone who’s ever been remotely in a position like the one I currently find myself in, and...

The Hateful Eight was one of my favorite movies of 2015, and as you know, Quentin Tarantino doesn’t really shy away from putting controversial things in his films. A lot of people will find a lot of things offensive about the filmmaker's recent movie. The Hateful Eight is set in the post-Civil War period of American history, and some of the major themes associated with that are race and bigotry. There was one thing that he cut out of the film, though. It was a line of dialogue spoken by Walton Goggins, who plays Sherriff Chris Mannix. The line was:

“You ask the white folks in South Carolina if they feel safe.”

This line would have been spoken by Mannix early on in the film to Major Marquis Warren, who was played by Samuel L. Jackson. It’s part of Mannix’s view of race relations.

Why was it cut out?...

Vulgarity, obscenity, and all-around offensive rhetoric have characterized Quentin Tarantino's career over the years; it's what fans of his work have come to expect (and love). The Hateful Eight is no different. Taking place in the tumultuous post-Civil War period of American history, the film tackles major themes associated with race and bigotry. The director has never shied away from these issues before, but recently admitted that The Hateful Eight is the first time in his career that he decided to edit out a piece of dialogue.   A new report from The Telegraph indicates that Tarantino cut a line of dialogue spoken by Sheriff Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins). The line of dialogue was: You ask the white folks in South Carolina if they feel safe. Walton Goggins. character would have uttered the line towards the beginning of the film when Mannix . a former confederate turned Red Rock Sheriff...

With all of the box office records Star Wars: The Force Awakens has broken so far, many are expecting this sci-fi adventure to continue dominating its competition well into the month of January. The final weekend of the year didn't provide much competition for director J.J. Abrams' blockbuster, with The Hateful Eight expanding nationwide, but no other movies opening in wide release. As predicted, Star Wars: The Force Awakens retained the top spot for a third weekend in a row, with an estimated $88.3 million.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke yet another box office record, shattering Avatar's third weekend record of $68.4 million. Avatar still holds the all-time records for highest domestic tally ($760.5 million) and worldwide gross ($2.7 billion), but the domestic mark could very well fall this week. Star Wars: The Force Awakens has earned $740.2 million domestically, and $1.51 billion worldwide. While it's certainly feasible that Star Wars: The Force Awakens...

If you haven't gotten a chance to see director Quentin Tarantino's revenge Western The Hateful Eight yet, you may not want to read any further. This story does contain some Spoilers. Keep reading if you want to know what one star thinks happens next, following the brutal and bloody ending that barely leaves any characters alive.

An Agatha Christie-like mystery that's equal parts Clue, The Thing and Scooby Doo, The Hateful Eight manages to kill off all of its main cast with the exception of two men. The survivors are Samuel L. Jackson's Major Marquis Warren and Walton Goggins' Sherriff Chris Mannix. They are both wounded, and probably won't make it very far. Not only that, the wanted woman Daisy Domergue has promises that the rest of her gang will be arriving shortly to avenge her death.

The movie ends on a shot of Warren and...

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Walton Goggins chats about working with Tarantino, The Hateful Eight, and House Of 1000 Corpses...

Walton Goggins is excited about The Hateful Eight. The film is really good, he’s terrific in it and, as one of the lead characters in the new Quentin Tarantino film, it’s perhaps his most high profile role to date. He has a lot to be excited about.

Even his hair looks excited, jutting up wildly. He’s animated and moves a lot, but he’s not wired and out of control. He just exudes enthusiasm and seems happy to be where he is, talking about his work. He’s great fun to talk to; enthusiastic and warm interview subjects are something of a gift. Here’s how our chat with Walton Goggins went.

How do you respond, when you get that script (for The Hateful Eight)?

You know, Quentin doesn...

The following interview contains major spoilers for Quentin Tarantino.s The Hateful Eight. Please steer clear if you haven.t yet seen the director.s bloody (and bloody good) Western mystery thriller. By the end of Quentin Tarantino.s The Hateful Eight, all but two of the hateful characters have met their maker. The only two survivors are Samuel L. Jackson.s Major Marquis Warren and Sherriff Chris Mannix, played by the wily Walton Goggins. Though, how much longer the two men will survive is unclear. They.ve both been mortally wounded. Daisy Domergue has promised that her gang could be arriving at any moment to avenge her death. And there.s a brutal snowstorm pounding outside of Minnie.s Haberdashery. Things looks grim. But when the screen fades to black, both Warren and Mannix have survived. So when I had an opportunity to interview Goggins in the days following...

Commanding during Quentin Tarantino's original "The Hateful Eight" live read (and showing substantial stagecraft) was "Justified" and "Django Unchained" star Walton Goggins as one of the western's many mystery men, Chris Mannix, who hitches a ride on a stagecoach with bounty hunter John "Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell), his quarry Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson). Mannix insists that he's about to be sworn in as the new sheriff once he gets to Red Rock. "You guys having a bounty hunter picnic?" he asks. "Keeping you at a disadvantage is an advantage I intend to keep," Ruth tells him, unsure of his identity. No one quite knows what's going to happen as the eight duke it out during a raging blizzard inside Minnie's Haberdashery, changing allegiances in a high stakes game of survival.   Sure enough, Goggins also pops in the movie (which hits multiplexes.

Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most prolific writer/director working in film today. His first feature-length film, Reservoir Dogs, came out back in 1993, and yet the man still manages to surprise us with his hard-hitting dialogue, unconventional humor, and radical social and political commentary. This is a man who serves as a prime example of succeeding as a result of respecting one's elders, as he learns from those great filmmakers who came before him, while still managing to thread his own style through his intricately woven, homage-heavy film résumé.

While the rest of the world toned down its violence and opted for bigger box office, PG-13 sure-things, Tarantino stuck to his guns, consistently making movies for adults and constantly pushing the envelope as to what is allowed onscreen and how to go about displaying such graphic material. Tarantino doesn't give a damn what you think, and that's the reason why...

Director Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight is now playing in select theaters in “glorious 70mm” (including St. Louis) and will open nationwide on December 31, 2015.

Of this ensemble cast, which includes Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern and Channing Tatum, the one standout is the performance by Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Leigh comments on her character’s place among the eight: “Daisy is a gutsy girl, and she’s a bit of an animal in her own way. But all of these people have their values, and they all have their soft spots.”

“Jennifer Jason Leigh is fearless,” producer Stacey Sher says. “She’ll go anywhere, she’ll try anything, she’ll push it all the way, and as a result her character is constantly surprising throughout the entire journey.”

In The Hateful Eight, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War,...

With all of the box office records Star Wars: The Force Awakens has broken so far, many are expecting this sci-fi adventure to continue dominating its competition well into the month of January. The final weekend of the year won't provide much competition for director J.J. Abrams' blockbuster, with The Hateful Eight expanding nationwide, but no other movies opening in wide release. Star Wars: The Force Awakens will have no trouble holding on to the top spot, with an estimated $89.7 million.

If Star Wars: The Force Awakens can meet or exceed this projection, it will break yet another box office record, shattering Avatar's third weekend record of $68.4 million. Avatar still holds the all-time records for highest domestic tally ($760.5 million) and worldwide gross ($2.7 billion). While it's certainly feasible that Star Wars: The Force Awakens could eventually break Avatar's all-time records, there is one thing to consider: Avatar spent much more time in theaters,...

Where life had no value, death had its price."

So begins Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More, the film's opening title card succinctly setting the scene for the carnage to come. And yet, for all of its ominous portent, the preface betrays a certain shortsightedness: Just because the film is set in the past doesn't mean that it should speak in the past tense. More than 40 years have elapsed since that spaghetti Western first hit theaters — and more than 100 since the twilight of the late 19th Century frontier that it depicts.

Sneak Peek more footage from director Quentin Tarantino's 2-hour-long western feature "The Hateful Eight", starring Kurt Russell, Bruce Dern, Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen, opening December 25, 2015:

"...set after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter 'John Ruth' (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive 'Daisy Domergue' (Jennifer Jason Leigh)...

"...race towards the town of 'Red Rock' where Ruth, known in these parts as 'The Hangman', will bring Domergue to justice.

"Along the road, they encounter strangers 'Major Marquis Warren' (Samuel L. Jackson), a black former union soldier turned bounty hunter...

"...and 'Chris Mannix' (Walton 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,...

Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Demian Bichir, Michael Madsen, James Parks, Lee Horsley, Zoe Bell, Walton Goggins, Bruce Dern | Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino

“You only need to hang mean bastards, but mean bastards you need to hang.”

The Hateful Eight is, as its title suggests, a sort of inverted Magnificent Seven, its cast of colorful characters coming together not to put aside their lone wolf differences in unlikely defense of a pastoral dream but to bite, tear, shoot, hack, poison, stab, and hang each other in pursuit of goals which, as the film progresses and the tide of blood comes in, are sucked into the void like dirty water down a drain. It’s Tarantino’s bleakest film, a pressure cooker full of comprehensively human beasts whose slowly revealed foibles and virtues inspire just enough empathy to make their messy deaths an emotional ordeal...

For the last couple of decades film fans have been bemoaning the lack of flicks set in the old wild West. Many even remarked that the “horse opera” or “oater” was a dead genre, that its heydays were nearly twenty five years ago (Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven took Oscar gold in 1992). At the end of 2015, the corpse of the Western, seems to have been revived. And who are the “mad scientists”, well “mad movie makers” perhaps, shocking this corpse back to life via their electrifying talents? Well, Oscar winner Alejandro Inarritu, fresh off his Birdman triumph, puts Leonardo DiCaprio through the wringer (emotional and physical) in The Revenant, which we’ll discuss in length when it gallops into theatres in a couple of weeks. The film that’s out on Christmas Day (in a very special limited release) comes from the ultimate movie fanatic turned film maker Quentin Tarantino. Now...

The following review contains spoilers. In Quentin Tarantino’s superbly balanced ensemble piece, The Hateful Eight, the passengers and drivers we meet at the start of the picture, dropped off at Minnie’s Haberdashy, a spacious Wyoming way station, by two different stagecoaches on different but overlapping missions, all have masked identities. Six years after the end of the Civil War, these are some of battle’s renegade residue, Confederate vets with few prospects who depend on bounty hunting to survive in a particularly testy postwar America. In the second coach there’s Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins, displaying the best of his high-energy talent), […]...

The following review contains spoilers. In Quentin Tarantino’s superbly balanced ensemble piece, The Hateful Eight, the passengers and drivers we meet at the start of the picture, dropped off at Minnie’s Haberdashy, a spacious Wyoming way station, by two different stagecoaches on different but overlapping missions, all have masked identities. Six years after the end of the Civil War, these are some of battle’s renegade residue, Confederate vets with few prospects who depend on bounty hunting to survive in a particularly testy postwar America. In the second coach there’s Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins, displaying the best of his high-energy talent), […]...

As promised, I’m back writing again about filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s eighth cinematic outing this week. Whenever a new movie of his opens, it’s really an event, so this is no exception. Of late, Tarantino has been getting the attention of the Academy, so this is definitely a high profile release. Buzz had been steadily building for months now, with folks especially excited for the 70mm roadshow version being unveiled in select theaters. I’ve seen and dug the flick a great deal, so it’s a pleasure to be able to speak more about how good this film is. I praised Bruce Dern’s work in it a few days ago, but now I’m gushing over the whole thing, as well as speculating about its Oscar prospects. Once again, this is Tarantino’s eight film, centering on a group of less than savory characters convening on a single location,...

On behalf of The Weinstein Company, we are excited to share a new&#160featurette on Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), from their highly anticipated film,&#160The Hateful Eight. Director Quentin Tarantino continues his long relationship with the actor, which started in 1994, when the pair first came together for Pulp Fiction. Samuel L. Jackson and Quentin Tarantino have gone onto make six films together. And this may be their most ambitious work to date.

Set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), race towards 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 (Samuel L. Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter,...

The Hateful Eight

Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino

U.S.A., 2015

Here we go again. 3 years, literally to the day, after Quentin Tarantino dabbled in the western genre with Django Unchained, he returns for another Christmas Day serving of violent, western-influenced mayhem in the shape of The Hateful Eight. Lavishly produced and advertised, with a lot of hoopla surrounding the fact that it was shot using 70mm film, the movie arrives at an atypical moment during the holiday season, inviting those less interested in good dinosaurs, inspirational tales of ragtag boxers, and mystical lightsaber duels to spend three hours in a desolate inn with no less than eight characters that fit the title’s bill marvelously. The question remains: can a hateful eight make for a happy time?

Set shortly after the American Civil War, Tarantino’s latest is rooted in a Wyoming winter wonderland. A storm is fast...

Quentin Tarantino's unrequited love for 60s era spaghetti westerns is again on display in The Hateful Eight. It is a gruesomely violent, garrulous, and protracted homage to a style of filmmaking the director fervently adores. Shot in 70mm with an overture, intermission, and score by the legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone; The Hateful Eight clocks in at a staggering three hours and seven minutes. The film is an ugly, yet fascinating discourse on race relations and loyalty. It takes a minor eternity to get going, but is fairly gripping once the stage is set.

The story takes place in post Civil War Wyoming during a fierce blizzard. Former Union soldier, Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), is stranded on a snowy trail with a bounty of corpses. He flags down a stagecoach with John 'The Hangman' Ruth (Kurt Russell), and his prisoner, the vile Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh...

(This is a review of the roadshow version of The Hateful Eight, which will be screening in true 70Mm in about 50 theaters across the country during the first two weeks after the movie’s release on Christmas Day. The same roadshow version will also screen in other venues digitally rather than on film. Before the roadshow engagement ends, a slightly shortened version, sans overture and intermission, will go into general release on December 31, so if you’re interested in seeing the roadshow version—and if you can, you should see it—read your newspaper or Internet theater listings carefully.)

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Once upon a time, not so very long ago, a friend and I had a friendly discussion online about what it was that made a story a “western.” It seemed to him that, beyond the usual interchangeable trappings of the genre-- six-shooters, ruthless bad guys, conflicted lawmen, a showdown on Main Street...