Jamie Foxx is apparently very close to playing the lead in Tarantino’s Django Unchained.
Word apparently first broke through via Twitter, which is commonplace today, then reports started popping up in the legitimate trades not long after.
As previously reported, Will Smith was Tarantino’s first choice, but talks died down.
No official reason has been given yet as to why Smith passed, but perhaps Django would be too controversial a movie for his clean, family image, and it’s also been mentioned in The Hollywood Reporterthat negotiations “are in a delicate stage” because of Foxx’s concerns over the material as well, where Deadline Hollywood Daily reports, “No deal has been made yet, but it shouldn’t take long.”
Foxx was on the short list of potential actors for the lead along with Idris Elba, Terrence Howard, and Chris Tucker.
Deadline has called Foxx an inspired choice for the role, and who wasn’t blown away by his portrayal of Ray Charles that won him a well deserved Best Actor Academy Award? (He was also very good in Any Given Sunday.) Not to mention, as Deadline tells us, Foxx can also ride a horse.
Also on board for the film so far are Leonardo DiCaprio as an evil slave owner, and Christoph Waltz as the man who helps free Django and try to reunite him with his long, lost love, a role that hasn’t been cast yet.
Long time Tarantino alumni Samuel L. Jackson is also expected to sign on for the film as well.
Django Unchained is thought to be inspired by the 1966 Django, directed by Sergio Corbucci, as well as the 2007 Japanese remake by director Takashi Miike, known as Sukiyaki Western Django, which featured Tarantino in a cameo as a character named Ringo.
