How much badassery can a single motion picture contain? That burning question likely will be answered by Quentin Tarantino's eagerly awaited The Hateful Eight, the upcoming Western action-thriller starring Kurt Russell, Walton Goggins, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Demian Bichir, Channing Tatum (allegedly) -- and Mr. Samuel L. Jackson, who has, hands down, the best line in this trailer: "Move a little strange -- you're gonna get a bullet. Not a warning. Not a question. A bullet." Get ready to mount up and ride hard when The Hateful Eight hits theaters -- in "glorious 70mm Ultra Panavision" -- on Christmas Day.
Kurt Russell battles cannibalistic troglodytes in the Wild West. Hmmm. This sounds like a scenario fit for... Fantastic Fest. And sure enough: Bone Tomahawk, S. Craig Zahler's long-awaited horror Western, has been announced as the closing night attraction for the 2015 edition of Fantastic Fest, the bountifully stocked cinematic smorgasbord that immodestly but accurately bills itself as “the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world.” This year's event takes place Sept. 24 through Oct. 1 in Austin at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. Also known as The Geek Telluride, Fantastic Fest takes pride in bringing out the stars as well as amping up the weird. Which explains why festival founder Tim League is hard-pressed to constrain his excitement when announcing that both the director and the ensemble cast of Bone Tomahawk will descend upon Austin for the world premiere. "Bringing Kurt Russell back to the Alamo is something we've been trying to do for a long time," said League. "And to do it with Bone Tomahawk, a quintessential Fantastic Fest film, means we're in for one hell of a closer. Huge thanks to Caliber Media for making it all happen."
So what's it all about? According to the official Fantastic Fest plot synopsis: "Kurt Russell stars in this character-driven and at times horrific Western about a group of men (including Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox and Richard Jenkins) who set out to rescue a local woman and a young deputy who’ve been kidnapped by a tribe of cannibalistic troglodytes." Cowabunga. Bone Tomahawk was just one of the titles included Wednesday in Fanatastic Fest's "first wave" announcement of its 2015 lineup. You can read the full announcement here.
