Since the release of “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction”, Quentin Tarantino has been a household name in the realm of aestheticization of violence. He gave us candy for the mind with blaxploitation homage Jackie Brown, stylized revenge flick “Kill Bill”, Kurt Russel-creepifying slasher Death Proof, slavery drama “Django Unchained” and countless others. It’s been three years since Django’s release, and our highly-anticipated follow-up has quite some delay complications: in January 2014, Gawker leaked a copy of the script for Tarantino’s upcoming film called “The Hateful Eight.” For a while, we were all convinced that Tarantino scrapped the project for good and chose to write the story into a novel instead.

The spat didn’t end there. It was followed with a copyright lawsuit against Gawker. In the lawsuit, Tarantino stated that “Gawker Media has made a business of predatory journalism, violating people’s rights to make a buck” (The Hollywood Reporter). Even though he demanded a compensation of $1,000,000, he later dropped the case. He retains the right to refile a claim in the future.

Fortunately at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Tarantino reconfirmed the film for a Christmas Day release on 70mm film. A special 8 minute cut was previewed at Comic-Con, introducing how the film’s characters met each other. The cut was centered around Kurt Russel’s John “The Hangman” Ruth, who’s moving Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Daisy to her execution. The cut also introduces six other characters, which seems a bit like a tribute to Tarantino’s first works (“Reservoir Dogs”), with its minimal cast and setting. The film commenced shooting on Jan. 23, 2015 in scenic Telluride, Colorado, roughly a year after the Gawker suit. The preview boasts the beauty of the Rockies alongside the confinements of the Cabin where the story takes place, simulating the post-Civil War Wyoming setting.

After the preview, Tarantino and the cast answered questions from panel attendees. Tarantino admitted he was bothered by the leak of the first draft script greatly because “this is the one I wanted to go through three drafts; there’s certain plot threads and I knew I had another couple of drafts to go… Having said that, my process is my process so even though I yelled and screamed I did what I do…it just got more publicity than I wanted to get.”

On a side note, Tarantino confirmed he’s been thinking about the possibility of a third “Kill Bill” installment. “We’ll see. Uma [Thurman] would really like to do it; we talk about it every once in awhile.”

Tarantino was also inquired about his recent comments about himself retiring after 10 films (‘Hateful Eight” will be his eighth film). He credited his possible retirement towards the rising popularity of Digital Projection, which he’s infamously known for detesting.

“Part of the thing I don’t like about digital projection; it’s like HBO in public. If that’s what movies become, I [might] just move to television and cut out the middle man,” he said.

Tarantino has also considered switching to novel writing as an alternative. The panel ended on a brighter note, as Tarantino announced Ennio Morricone will be providing the original score for the film, making it the first time in 40 years he’s scored a Western. Rumors have been also confirmed that Channing Tatum has an unnamed role in the film.