Quentin Tarantino talks about 'Hateful Eight' as first image emerges

HOLLYWOOD, May 7 (UPI) -- The first image from Quentin Tarantino's upcoming film The Hateful Eight emerges on the cover of Entertainment Weekly this month.

The cover features three heavily-clothed characters played by Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell and Jennifer Jason Leigh, who dons a mournful black eye.

Following the story of eight no-good gunslingers trapped in a snow-ridden way station, the western is promised to be as intimate as it is bloody as Tarantino tones down from his last two films, Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained. "For me it has more of a Western Iceman Cometh kind of vibe about it," Tarantino told Entertainment Weekly.

Jackson, Russell and Leigh are joined on screen by stars Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Walton Goggins, Bruce Dern and newcomer Damián Bichir.

The film that almost didn't happen will be released later this year.