By Quentin Tarantino isn't the type to suffer people fiddling about with his films very gladly, and we've just got an insight into exactly how quickly he can pivot from listening politely to flooring it out of the underground car park in a huff.
Jeff Shell, the CEO of NBCUniversal, told the Wall Street Journal that he managed to piss off Tarantino with a helpful suggestion for how to distribute the director's 2015 film The Hateful Eight.
Tarantino wanted to screen his three-hour behemoth in 70mm, which would have entailed either helping to instal expensive projectors in more cinemas or just accepting that fewer places would be able to show it. Tarantino's a noted zealot for screening on film rather than digital, and his cinema, The New Beverley in Los Angeles, only screens films off reels.
That didn't sound particularly appetising to Shell. Shell, though, had another, far better – and cheaper – idea.
"What if we released it on iPhones?" he suggested instead.
"Great!" Tarantino replied, before promptly standing up and walking out of the meeting.
For some reason, the prospect of shrinking his opus down to a seven-inch screen didn't appeal. Eventually Shell relented and The Hateful Eight went out in conventional 35mm as well as a special 70mm 'roadshow' edition. Latterly, though, he was kind of proved right: Netflix chunked The Hateful Eight up into four more easily digestible chunks, so you can watch it on your phone just like Shell always wanted.
Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more delivered straight to your inbox.
Need some positivity right now? Subscribe to Esquire now for a hit of style, fitness, culture and advice from the experts
