Director Quentin Tarantino cancels new film after script leaks online

"Pulp Fiction" and "Django Unchained" director Quentin Tarantino is on the warpath, after someone leaked his latest screenplay, prompting him to scrap plans to make it as his next film.

The "Reservoir Dogs" filmmaker is pointing the finger at someone linked to only six people with whom he shared the screenplay for "The Hateful Eight," which he now says he will turn into a book instead.

Representatives for some of those allegedly involved declined to comment, or did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday, a day after Tarantino voiced his anger in an interview with celebrity news outlet Deadline.com.

"I'm very, very depressed ... I finished a script, a first draft, and I didn't mean to shoot it until next winter, a year from now. I gave it to six people, and apparently it's gotten out today," he said.

Tarantino said he showed the screenplay to only six people, including three actors -- Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Bruce Dern -- and one producer on "Django Unchained," who he says let an agent come to his house and read it.

"That's a betrayal, but not crippling because the agent didn't end up with the script. There is an ugly maliciousness to the rest of it. I gave it to three actors: Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth.

"The one I know didn't do this is Tim Roth. One of the others let their agent read it, and that agent has now passed it on to everyone in Hollywood," he said.

A spokesman for Madsen, James Weir, told AFP he had no comment on the issue, while agents for Dern -- currently basking in Oscar nomination glory for black and white road movie "Nebraska," did not respond to requests for comment.

Tarantino said he wants to know who exactly leaked it, telling Deadline he wants someone to "name names."

"I don't know how these ... agents work, but I'm not making this next. I'm going to publish it, 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," he said.

[Image via Agence France-Presse]