Quentin Tarantino dropped a few bombs at AFM when he sat down with foreign distributors as well as The Hateful Eight cast members Walton Goggins, Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Deadline was also in the room, reporting on the writer-director's desire to present the 70mm film properly in theaters, the origins of the screenplay and his supposed retirement after 10 movies.

“It’s less inspired by one Western movie than by Bonanza, The Virginian, High Chaparral,” Tarantino said. “Twice per season, those shows would have an episode where a bunch of outlaws would take the lead characters hostage. They would come to the Ponderosa and hold everybody hostage, or to go Judge Garth’s place — Lee J. Cobb played him — in The Virginian and take hostages. There would be a guest star like David Carradine, Darren McGavin, Claude Akins, Robert Culp, Charles Bronson or James Coburn. I don’t like that storyline in a modern context, but I love it in a Western, where you would pass halfway through the show to find out if they were good or bad guys, and they all had a past that was revealed. “I thought, ‘What if I did a movie starring nothing but those characters? No heroes, no Michael Landons. Just a bunch of nefarious guys in a room, all telling backstories that may or may not be true. Trap those guys together in a room with a blizzard outside, give them guns, and see what happens.'"

On the subject of his impending retirement from film, both Russell and Jackson voiced their disbelief. “You don’t actually believe that shit, do you?” Russell said. “What’s Quentin going to do with himself if he’s not doing this?” Jackson added

Tarantino claimed he will refocus his efforts into other creative outlets like “writing plays and books, going gracefully into my tender years.” He added, "I like that I will leave a 10-film filmography, and so I’ve got two more to go after this. It’s not etched in stone, but that is the plan. If I get to the 10th, do a good job and don’t screw it up, well that sounds like a good way to end the old career. If, later on, I come across a good movie, I won’t not do it just because I said I wouldn’t. But 10 and done, leaving them wanting more — that sounds right.”

The Hateful Eight is expected to start shooting early next year for a 2015 release.