On 05.06.11, by Ryan Laster
Quentin Tarantino wants Will Smith for the lead role in his next film, Django Unchained, a spaghetti Western taking place in the Old South. There is no offer on the table right now, but if Smith and Tarantino can work out all of the details and come to an agreement, Smith will take on the role of Django, a freed slave who goes on a mission to reunite with his wife who is still a slave. Django eventually meets up with a German bounty hunter (possibly played by Christopher Waltz) and the two eventually work together.
THR also says Samuel L. Jackson is also another frontrunner for a lead role in the film. Jackson would play the house slave to the plantation owner who owns Django’s wife. Jackson’s character would eventually go head-to-head with Django.
We’ve heard Tarantino wrote the role of the German bounty hunter with Waltz in mind. The two worked together on Inglorious Basterds, which won Waltz an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, so there’s no doubt he’ll want to re-team with Tarantino for another go-round. But it’s still uncertain whether or not Smith will take on the role of Django. The script is littered with uses of the “N” word, and that might be a huge put-off for Smith and his reps. There were also rumors that Franco Nero would be joining the cast, and I’d guess his role would be the plantation owner, Monsieur Calvin Candie.
The film will be released by The Weinstein Company in the States, but Tarantino is currently looking for a studio to release the film internationally. Tarantino is planning on shooting the film this fall in Louisiana and other parts of the South.
