Quentin Tarantino May Head to TV With Adaptation of FORTY LASHES LESS ONE

Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight is starting to screen for press, and reactions to his latest western are popping up on social media (I'll see it this Friday, but reviews are currently embargoed until December 21st). The director has mentioned he's considered retiring from making movies after he completes his tenth film (The Hateful Eight is, appropriately enough, his eighth), but I'm guessing his retirement might be similar to Steven Soderbergh's, in that he continues to create content, just not movies that are shown in traditional theaters. It seems like Tarantino has been hinting that he'd make a TV series for years now, and in a new interview, he seems to confirm that's finally going to happen.

The French Premiere magazine (via ScreenCrush) has an interview with him, and when asked about his next project, this was his (Google translated) response:

"It always takes me a while before thinking about the future. That said, I own the rights to this book I wanted to adapt for a while, and the time may have come from m ' tackle them. This is Forty Lashes Less One, Elmore Leonard (published in France under the title "The West Zulu"), which could be my third western. I like most is considering a project to on TV, in the form of a mini-series of four or six hours."

While the translation is a bit iffy, it's clear that he's considering a four-to-six hour mini-series adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Forty Lashes Less One as one of his next projects. The director is already familiar with Leonard's work, since his second feature, Jackie Brown, is an adaptation of the author's 1992 novel Rum Punch. Here's the Amazon description of Forty Lashes Less One:

The hell called Yuma Prison can destroy the soul of any man. And it's worse for those whose damning crime is the color of their skin. The law says Chiricahua Apache Raymond San Carlos and black-as-night former soldier Harold Jackson are murderers, and they'll stay behind bars until they're dead and rotting. But even in the worst place on Earth, there's hope. And for two hard and hated inmates -- first enemies, then allies by necessity -- it waits at the end of a mad and violent contest ... on a bloody trail that winds toward Arizona's five most dangerous men.

Sounds like perfect Tarantino material, doesn't it? And we know he wants to direct another western because he's on the record as saying "You have to make at least three westerns to call yourself a western director." Oh man, I can't wait until we can sit down and watch this play out as a mini-series on HBO or some other prestige network, basking in the glory of a potentially six hour Tarantino story. Count me in.

GeekTyrant Homepage