About two weeks ago, Kevin Costner had to drop out of Quentin Tarantino‘s upcoming western, Django Unchained. But now, it looks like the filmmaker will be reunited with one of his past stars — Kurt Russell is currently in talks to take over the role vacated by Costner, Ace Woody. It won’t be the first time Russell replaced an actor in a Tarantino movie, either — the part of Stuntman Mike in 2007’s Death Proof was supposed to have been played by Mickey Rourke. Pretty cool to have Kurt Russell as your perennial backup.
It doesn’t look like this is officially official yet, but if he does take the part of Ace Woody, Russell will join a wicked cast of actors — as Tarantino is wont to assemble — including Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz, and Jamie Foxx. And much like his serial killer in Death Proof, Russell’s new character is not exactly a nice dude. Woody is being described as a “remorseless” trainer of Mandingo fighters, slaves who were pitted against each other for the sake of entertaining white customers. Foxx is playing the titular former slave, Django, who trains to fight with a German bounty hunter (Waltz), while DiCaprio is playing the plantation owner, Calvin Candie, who runs the fighting organization. Jackson plays Candie’s house slave.
Obviously, this is sensitive territory, and Tarantino, who recently tackled the Holocaust, is no stranger to that. So seeing his take on one of the darkest parts of American history that entails Samuel L. Jackson playing a slave is sure to be pretty interesting. Also, anything being described as a “Southern-fried spaghetti western” is bound to be, at the very least, interesting. Django Unchained is set to start shooting in November and is expected to hit theaters on Christmas Day 2012.
(via Screen Rant)
Published: Oct 2, 2011 12:55 pm