Quentin Tarantino movie faces police boycott

Calls by police groups to boycott Quentin Tarantino’s latest film are putting pressure on one of next month’s most anticipated releases and plunging one of Hollywood’s top directors into a pitched cultural battle.

A growing number of police groups have called for the boycott of upcoming Weinstein release The Hateful Eight, after remarks the director made during a New York rally against police brutality.

Police bodies in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles called for the boycott and now the National Association of Police Organisations has joined the ranks opposing Tarantino.

“We ask officers to stop working special assignments or off-duty jobs, such as providing security, traffic control, or technical advice for any of Tarantino’s projects,” the organisation said.

“We need to send a loud and clear message that such hateful rhetoric against police officers is unacceptable.”

Tarantino, 52, attended the Brooklyn rally against brutality on October 24 where he said: “I’m a human being with a conscience. And if you believe there’s murder going on then you need to rise up and stand up against it. I’m here to say I’m on the side of the murdered.”

Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of the Weinstein Company, has a long history of using media storms to stoke interest in a movie, but this time the fortunes of The Hateful Eight, for better or worse, risk being altered by a controversy not of his making.

The Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs director’s comments sparked condemnation from, among others, NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton, who said “shame on him”, after the recent fatal shooting of officer Randolph Holder in East Harlem.

“There are no words to describe the contempt I have for him and his comments at this particular time,” Bratton said.

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly last week said Tarantino “lives in a world of his own”, but at the Hollywood Film Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday night, Jamie Foxx, the star of Tarantino’s Django Unchained, defended the director, urging him: “Keep telling the truth and don’t worry about none of the haters.”