The Weinstein Company/"The Hateful Eight"
In anticipation of his new film "The Hateful Eight," which was shot entirely in 70mm, Tarantino will reportedly take it upon himself to install 70mm projectors in 50 theaters across the US.
The frames on a 70mm film are nearly the same height as standard 35mm film, but about twice as wide (and cost twice as much to produce). The end result is a higher-resolution and wider image on-screen.
The film is the first to use the Ultra Panavision 70 anamorphic lenses since 1966's "Khartoum," and THR reports that the upcoming "Star Wars" spinoff "Rogue One" will also use these lenses.
The news comes from the Cine Gear expo, where Tarantino debuted footage from his new film and dazzled audiences with its ultra-wide presentation.
Cinematographer Bill Bennett was in attendance and tweeted the following:
Saw Ultra Panavision 70, Tarentino's "The Hateful 8", projected in Anamorphic 70mm. Crazy beautiful. An entirely chemical analog process.
- Bill Bennett ASC (@CineBill) June 6, 2015Ultra Panavision 70 "Hateful 8", 1.25 times anamorphic squeeze, yielding an extremely wide aspect ratio of 2.76:1 pic.twitter.com/Efm5FA9BjK
- Bill Bennett ASC (@CineBill) June 6, 2015@davidneal Tarantino is retrofitting 50 theaters in the world with 70mm projectors with the Anamorphic projection lenses. Film still lives.
- Bill Bennett ASC (@CineBill) June 6, 2015Dan Sasaki, Panavision's VP of optical engineering, told THR that Tarantino "really wants to get people back into theaters" and hopes that he "did something great to bring that [experience] back."
Right now there are no details about which theaters will be lucky enough to receive the new projectors.
We have reached out to Tarantino's production office for confirmation and will update this post as new information becomes available.