While initial rumours swirled around Will Smith, in the last few weeks, it’s been said Quention Tarantino has been meeting various actors, such as Idris Elba, about the the title role in his planned western, Django Unchained. Now it appears he’s found his man, as Jamie Foxx is said to be lined up for the role.
The news initially came via a tweet from Jeff Goldsmith, a film journo who’s been on the money with previous news about the film, and has since been confirmed by Variety, amongst others, so it does seem official, even though neither Foxx or Tarantino’s camps are speaking. While many may wonder why Quentin plumped for Foxx, especially considering most of Jamie’s movies haven’t been much cop, he is good at action, and it’s easy to forget that he is an Oscar-winning actor. So if he has the material, he could be very good.
Foxx will play a bounty hunting ex-slave named Django, who is taught the tricks of the trade by his former master-turned-mentor, a German dentist played by Inglourious Basterds’s Christoph Waltz. Django sets out to save his wife Broomhilda, an abused slave, from Mississippi plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), who operates Candyland, a club that exploits female slaves as sex objects and pits male slaves in fights to the death.
It’s quite a cast, and could be quite a film.