The Oscar-winning actor has beaten off stiff competition to supposedly snag the lead role of a freed slave who becomes a contract killer. That’s some way to follow up Rio.
Variety is reporting that Jamie Foxx has signed on for Quentin Tarantino’s western-influenced Django Unchained. It’s believed that the likes of Idris Elba, Terrence Howard and Chris Tucker were all in the frame, but Foxx is set to join the all-star cast of Leonardo DiCaprio (playing the plantation’s nasty owner, Calvin Candie) and Tarantino alumni, Samuel L Jackson (a slave called Stephen, who carries out Candie’s evil wishes) and Christoph Waltz, who yet again plays a German. But this time, he’s on the side of good, as a bounty hunter who imparts wisdom and training on Django, so he can rescue his wife from the plantation. Kerry Washington, who starred opposite Foxx in Ray, is favored to get the gig.
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The title is a reference to the 1966 Sergio Corbucci spaghetti western Django, starring Franco Nero. Tarantino’s flick is said to take place in the deep South in the 19th century. And Tarantino being Tarantino, the maverick director is calling his film a “southern.”
Not much else is known, though one other rumor suggests that Will Smith was the first actor attached to the role. His hesitance to take on the part was related to the script, with language and violence that allegedly made the A-Lister uncomfortable. But if there’s one thing that Tarantino deals in, it’s discomfort, in all its forms. (via The Guardian)
