Quickly becoming one of Hollywood’s hottest properties, the upcoming Spaghetti Western from writer/director Quentin Tarantino; Django Unchained; is quickly gaining momentum, officially has studio backing, and now may have even found its leading man; in the ever popular Will Smith.
Despite being absent from cinema screens for the past 3 years, Smith is still counted as one of the top draws in the business, and is an actor that Taranatino has reportedly expressed an interest in seeing cast as the lead in his next film; the titular Django; a freed slave who teams up with a German bounty hunter to search for his enslaved wife, and take down an evil plantation owner.
As of yet there’s still no official been offer sent out to Smith (although he has got a copy of the script); who’s usual paycheck could be the stumbling block for negotiations; although a number of other actors are currently circling key roles; Christoph Waltz (who was led to an Oscar win for Inglorious Basterds, thanks to Tarantino’s direction) is up for the part of the German bounty hunter (which was actually written with him in mind), and Samuel L. Jackson (the Pulp Fiction star who’s another Tarantino regular), could play the part of a manipulative slave working for the evil plantation owner.
Django Unchained will start shooting this fall in the Southern US (with Louisiana being mentioned as a possible locale, although not confirmed), before The Weinstein Company releases the film in the US, and another studio (meetings are being held with Universal, Sony, Paramount, Warner Bros., and possibly more) handles the international release of the movie in either late 2012, or 2013.
Matt Wheeldon.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter.
