Tarantino Sues Over The Hateful Eight Script Leak

Quentin Tarantino is seeking at least $2 million in damages after the script for one of his films was leaked online.

The Oscar-winning director shelved The Hateful Eight after the 146-page screenplay was made public earlier this month.

The man behind Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained filed two claims for copyright infringement in Los Angeles district court on Monday.

The first is a claim of contributory copyright infringement against the gossip website Gawker for linking to the leaked script.

AnonFiles.com, where the script was available, is the subject of the second claim for direct infringement. The website allows users to upload and download files anonymously.

The lawsuit said: "This action is necessitated by Gawker Media's and the other defendants' blatant copyright infringement by their promotion and dissemination of unauthorised downloadable copies of the leaked unreleased complete screenplay.

"Gawker Media has made a business of predatory journalism, violating people's rights to make a buck. This time they went too far."

Editor John Cook denied the website had infringed copyright.

Gawker did not leak the script and only published a link to a website where the script could be downloaded, he claimed. The original Gawker story remains live.

He added Gawker had nothing to do with the appearance of the script and said it did not know who had uploaded it to AnonFiles.com.

Tarantino told the website Deadline he had given copies of the script to just six people, including a number of actors he has worked with previously.

But agents soon began calling hoping to get their clients roles in the film and the script then appeared online.

Tarantino said this left him feeling "betrayed" and "very, very depressed".

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