It's been more than 10 years since many Tarantino fans worldwide tried to navigate through the Japanese Amazon website with all its strange characters so that they could order the uncensored version of Kill Bill Part 1. You know, the version with the bloody battle in the middle being fully colored instead of black and white and with censored violence (see comparison). Since then, there was lots of talk and rumors, raising and crushing hopes and bringing them back to life whether that special version would ever come out outside of Japan. The holy grail of all that culminates in the term "The Whole Bloody Affair" that is believed to be a double feature that combines both films to one. But it's still nowhere to be seen. Argh.

The burning question now is whether Tarantino will torture his fans in similar ways with his newest film The Hateful Eight. Here, he confirms that 2 versions exist:

via Variety: “The roadshow version has an overture and an intermission, and it will be three hours, two minutes. The multiplex version is about six minutes shorter, not counting the intermission time, which is about 12 minutes.”

The overture might be something that can be spared since most cinemagoers use that for another trip to the toilet. And the normal version will surely be interrupted in the middle in many cinemas that want to get their customers to buy another beverage or popcorn box. But the other 6 minutes of more actual film, they hurt. And cinemas with 70mm projectors are rare these days. And Tarantino states that this is his preferred version in terms of visuals.

"But I actually changed the cutting slightly for a couple of the multiplex scenes because it’s not that. [...] The sequences in question play in “big, long, cool, unblinking takes” in the 70mm version [...] It was awesome in the bigness of 70, but sitting on your couch, maybe it’s not so awesome. So I cut it up a little bit. It’s a little less precious about itself."

The majority of film fans that eagerly await the new Tarantino film will have to accept that they are only 2nd-rate cinemagoers and will have to hope that the Blu-ray will also contain the longer version. That situation will become clearer in the upcoming months after the film had its run in the theaters. The longer version will have a limited release in US cinemas on December 25th, 2015 while the shorter version follows on January 8th, 2016.