Quentin Tarantino’s warped spaghetti western Django Unchained runs to around three hours, but if you believe the enigmatic director the film could’ve been made even longer – he certainly had the amount of script to do so.

The film took five nominations for the Golden Globe Awards early next year, which usually bodes well for any prospective chance at an Oscar. Speaking at a New York press event, Tarantino commented "I make these scripts that are almost novels.” Indeed, Tarantino said there might still be life in the Django Unchained script beyond the initial Jamie Foxx-starring film. "If I had to do this whole thing over again I would have published this as a novel and done this after the fact," he said, adding "I could do what Kevin Costner did with the expanded edition of Dances with Wolves, and I could very well do that. Because if I put some of that in I have to change the story. But I want this version to be the story for a while."

The Hobbit’s Peter Jackson might well want to take note on what Tarantino said about the narration of the film. "It had to be an odyssey” he commented. “At one point Harvey [Weinstein] was talking about splitting it up [into two films]. And I said, 'No, it won't work here.' You have to follow Django's journey to the end." Django Unchained is released on Christmas Day and looks to do well, with the critics reviews still aggregating out at 100% on the site Rotten Tomatoes.

Check out pictures of the Django Unchained premiere from last week.