Here’s another unexpected announcement coming out of Comic-Con this past weekend, although somehow it has nothing to do with superheroes, sci-fi or fantasy. Quentin Tarantino hosted a panel for The Hateful Eight on Saturday and in addition to talking about the decision to shoot on 70mm he also dropped a bombshell about the film’s soundtrack. As it turns out, legendary composer Ennio Morricone will be providing a brand new score for the movie… his first Western score in 40 years. The collaboration is also significant for Tarantino because it will be the first Tarantino movie to make use of an original score as opposed to a soundtrack culled from other sources. Hit the jump for more details.

Ennio Morricone has provided scores for hundreds of films over the years, most notably Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He also wrote music for many Hollywood films including The Untouchables, Days of Heaven, The Thing and Bugsy, but with Ripley’s Game being his last high profile credit, you may wonder what he has done recently. For the past decade or so, he has focused almost exclusively on scoring Italian made-for-TV movies and mini-series, so The Hateful Eight will bring the 86-year-old composer back into the Hollywood fold again.

It’s no secret that Tarantino is a fan of Morricone as he has used plenty of Morricone’s music in his films including Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2, Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. Morricone supposedly objected to Tarantino’s use of his song in Django, however, stating that QT “places music in his films without coherence” and that the movie had “too much blood.” However, he later said that his comments were taken out of context. What do you think, is this exciting news? Can a new Ennio Morricone score live up to the standards of his previous work?