The Bride, Jules Winnfield, Colonel Hans Landa: Most of Quentin Tarantino's characters are as unapologetic as they come. But a hacking group that leaked the filmmaker's latest wants to say they're sorry.

Hive-CM8, an internet piracy group, released The Hateful Eight to the online audiences on December 21, four days before the movie's intended legal release. The hackers claimed they were serving as a collective virtual Robin Hood, and aimed to give penny-pinchers access to the film. But in a subsequent Reddit thread posted last night (December 29), they apologized, and said they've since come to understand their ethics breach.

"We feel sorry for the trouble we caused by releasing that great movie," the post says. "We never intended to hurt anyone by doing that, we didn't know it would get that popular that quickly."

Moreover, the group gave the Tarantino project a rave review.

"The Hateful Eight is an excellent,thrilling and entertaining Western that combines terrific direction,a fantastic cast, a wonderful script, beautiful photography and a memorable score," the letter continues, adding that the group believes the movie's earnings won't suffer for the upload. "Please support the producers and watch all movies in the cinema on a big screen, like you should do anyhow."

And while Hive-CM8 admits to uploading the film, the message makes a point to clarify that the group didn't, itself, pirate the movie — it received it from a third-party DVD.

"Cheers," the message abruptly concludes.

Check out a collection of stars who smiled in mugshots:

 

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