Photo: courtesy of dimension films. It looks like Quentin Tarantino's latest revenge saga is about to play out in real life. The virtuoso director was livid last week, when a copy of his latest screenplay, The Hateful Eight, was leaked. But, that was nothing compared to what happened next.
Last Thursday, Gawker's showbiz spin-off site Defamer, posted a link that led to a downloadable copy of Tarantino's script. Today, the director filed a copyright complaint against the site and is asking for a jury trial and for “actual damages and Defendant’s profits in an amount exceeding $1,000,000 to be determined at trial.” The suit also took shots at Gawker, accusing the site of "predatory journalism" and of "violating people's rights to make a buck."
This afternoon, Gawker's editor-in-chief, John Cook, took to the web to respond to Tarantino's claims that the site was responsible for the script surfacing on the obscure website AnonFiles.com, which Cook insists are completely false. "No one at Gawker saw or had access to Tarantino's script before AnonFiles posted it," he wrote. "No one at Gawker transmitted it — or anything else, at all — to AnonFiles. No one at Gawker encouraged anyone to do so. No one at Gawker has any earthly idea how AnonFiles obtained a copy."
Cook goes on to explain that Defamer is in the business of reporting on stories that are relevant to people in Hollywood, and that it was Tarantino himself, who made the script leak a story in the first place, when he spoke to Deadline about it extensively. "Gawker and Defamer are news sites, and our publication of the link was clearly connected to our goal of informing readers about things they care about." wrote Cook. Tarantino is one of the more outspoken directors in Hollywood, so expect him to fire back soon. If what he says about abandoning all plans to make The Hateful Eight into a movie is to be believed, then this very public war with Gawker is surely the next best thing. (Vanity Fair)