Quentin Tarantino's next Western appears to be ricocheting around the calendar like a bullet in a bar brawl.

Deadline has word that the wide release of "The Hateful Eight" will arrive in theaters a week earlier than originally planned, hitting multiplex screens on New Year's Day. The move is a hopeful one for distributor The Weinstein Company who believe the highly anticipated "locked room" Western will draw a bigger audience on the holiday that's relatively free of new competition.

Of course, those who want to see the film even earlier can track down one of the special 70mm version of the movie which will arrive in a limited theatrical run on Christmas Day with a few alternate scenes. "The 70 is the 70," the director said recently. "You’ve paid the money. You’ve bought your ticket. So you’re there. I’ve got you. But I actually changed the cutting slightly for a couple of the multiplex scenes because it’s not that. Now it’s on Showtime Extreme. You’re watching it on TV and you just kind of want to watch a movie on your couch. Or you’re at Hot Dog on a Stick and you just want to catch a movie."

Starring an ensemble cast that includes Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bruce Dern, Michael Madsen, Walton Goggins and Tim Roth, “The Hateful Eight” is set in post-Civil War Wyoming, where a group of bounty hunters tries to find shelter during a blizzard but instead gets drawn into a plot of deception and betrayal.