Quentin Tarantino hits pause on 'The Hateful Eight' following script leak

From ew, Were you stoked to see Bruce Dern scowl his way through Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming western The Hateful Eight? Bad news, hombre: A source close to Tarantino confirms that after learning that the film’s screenplay has leaked, Tarantino has decided to shelve the project.  

The Oscar-winning writer/director tells Deadline that he found out about the leak when his agent, Mike Simpson, started to get calls from other agents who wanted to pitch their own clients for Hateful Eight roles. And though it’s unclear exactly how the script got out, Tarantino has a few ideas: According to that same Deadline interview, Tarantino gave The Hateful Eight‘s script to “six people,” including “three motherf—ing” actors — specifically Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, and Tim Roth, all of whom have appeared in previous Tarantino projects. He believes that either Madsen or Dern then passed the script to his agent, “and that agent has now passed it on to everyone in Hollywood.”

“I don’t know how these f—ing agents work, but I’m not making this next,” Tarantino continued. “I’m going to publish it [as a book], and that’s it for now. I give it out to six people, and if I can’t trust them to that degree, then I have no desire to make it. I’ll publish it. I’m done. I’ll move on to the next thing. I’ve got 10 more where that came from.”

Reps for Roth, Madsen, and Dern haven’t yet responded to EW’s requests for comment.