Film Will Shoot Late Summer Or Early Fall; Synopsis Revealed?
A whirlwind of info about Quentin Tarantino‘s next film has been flying around for the past twenty-four hours, so let’s get right to it, shall we?
Earlier this year, it was reported that Quentin Tarantino was hard at work on his next film, with a script due sometime this spring. Last night, fansite The Quentin Tarantino Archives dropped the first nugget of information. They got their hands on an image of the first page of the script — which looks like it was written by a five-year old with a broken hand (you can check it out below) — revealing the title to be “Django Unchained.” Well a bit more digging has been done and not only has the title been confirmed, but a cast member, potential shooting dates and even a possible synopsis have emerged. Like we said, the buzz has grown deafening fairly quickly.
Thompson On Hollywood picked up the ball and reaching out to their sources at WME, confirmed that yes, “Django Unchained” is indeed the title, and that it will be a spaghetti western. Moreover, they spoke with reps for Christoph Waltz and also confirmed that the “Inglourious Basterds” star will reunite with Tarantino for the film.
But let’s rewind for a moment shall we? As you might remember, a few months ago Italian actor Franco Nero said he was teaming with Tarantino for a spaghetti western that would star Waltz, Treat Williams and Keith Carradine and that the film would shoot in the United States. Now whether or not Nero, Williams or Carradine will be involved remains to be seen, but the Nero connection is made stronger given that the actor starred in the influential 1966 spaghetti western “Django” directed by Sergio Corbucci. And as any genre fan knows, that film was recently referenced by Takashi Miike in his 2007 film “Sukiyaki Western Django” which — to bring it all back — featured Quentin Tarantino in a small role.
Over at Deadline, Mike Fleming adds that the film is aiming for a late summer or early fall shoot with Tarantino’s longtime buds The Weinstein Company to handle domestic distribution, with all the majors pretty much scrapping it out for international rights. Additionally, he adds that casting will be “top-shelf.”
But perhaps the most interesting nugget comes from Shadow & Act who snagged this comment made over at Hollywood Elsewhere from someone who claims to have read the script:
Django is a freed slave, who, under the tutelage of a German bounty hunter (Christopher Waltz) becomes a bad-ass bounty hunter himself, and after assisting Waltz in taking down some bad guys for profit, is helped by Waltz in tracking down his slave wife and liberating her from an evil plantation owner. And that doesn’t even half begin to cover it! This film deals with racism as I’ve rarely seen it handled in a Hollywood film. While it’s 100 percent pure popcorn and revenge flick, it is pure genius in the way it takes on the evil slave owning south. Think of what he did with the Nazis in Inglorious and you’ll get a sense of what he’s doing with slave owners and slave overseers in this one.
Of course, there’s no confirmation that this is accurate but it sounds a helluva lot like the slave/western idea Tarantino had talked about in early 2010. At the time he had said, “I’d like to do a Western. But rather than set it in Texas, have it in slavery times. With that subject that everybody is afraid to deal with. Let’s shine that light on ourselves. You could do a ponderous history lesson of slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. Or, you could make a movie that would be exciting. Do it as an adventure. A spaghetti Western that takes place during that time. And I would call it ‘A Southern’ [which Uma Thurman confirmed earlier this year].”
He also added, “I want to do movies that deal with America’s horrible past with slavery and stuff but do them like spaghetti westerns, not like big issue movies. I want to do them like they’re genre films, but they deal with everything that America has never dealt with because it’s ashamed of it, and other countries don’t really deal with because they don’t feel they have the right to.”
So definitely a lot to chew on right now, but just to recap: Quentin Tarantino is reteaming with Christoph Waltz for a spaghetti western titled “Django Unchained.” Fucking A.
\”Of course, there’s no confirmation that this is accurate but it sounds a helluva lot like the slave/western idea Tarantino had talked about in early 2010.\”
It\’s completely accurate. I\’m reading the script now.
Black Dynamite proved Michael Jai White is awesome, and should be given every possible opportunity to exhibit that awesomeness.
@Alex P, all hank said was he wanted Eddie Murphy. I appreciate your study of Tarantino\’s use of \”homage\”, but you hateful.
Hayden, did you ever read that script? You are giving Quentin FAR too much credit.
Djimon Hounsou would be hot pick for the lead in this flick. His wife ought to be Queen Latifa, the mentor would have to be Michael Madsen and the evil plantation massa should be Ed Harris.
This is how it will be once I finally achieve my goal of becomming undisputed king of the entire universe. Meanwhiles, we\’ll just go with QT\’s picks.
J. Bone
Northern California
@AlexP
Did you not watch the climax of Inglourious Basterds that very explicitly questions the futility and morality of using cinema as a way to play out revenge fantasies? There\’s a lot going on in that movie. It\’s not about how the ideas got there that led to genocide but how the subjugated people react and their thirst for revenge.
Michael Jai WHITE! Tarantino owes him for cutting out his cool death scene from kill bill
Ive had goodbye uncle tom for a long time seems like nows the time to watch it.
Eddie Murphy for Django.
Remember when the Playlist said (circa 2009 Cannes) that Tarantino was in a creative rut? Well it doesn\’t look like its coming to an end soon.
Will Smith? He\’s such a bore…
I prefer someone like Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie or even Forrest Whitaker (he might be too old, though)
I\’d rather see someone like Anthony Mackie in the lead…
I second Will Smith. Hey, why not?
@Brad The film was never called \”The Southern,\” it was just Tarantino\’s way of saying he wanted to do a \”Western\” set in the South in slavery times.
Well the Playlist was completely wrong about Inglourious Basterds (I think it\’s his best film so far) so whenever this comes out, I\’ll take their word with a grain of salt.
Badass = Michael K. Williams (Omar Little on the range, y\’all)
You moron (@brad), it was never going to called \”Southern,\” it was TARANTINO\’s southern; as in, before he had a title for it Tarantino said he was going to make a movie and it would HIS \’southern.\’ This was his way of referring to the project he had not yet written, but was very much in his mind.
And@hank, considering Inglourious was a ripped-off title and film plot redone to suit his own purposes and Django Unchained, sounds like it\’s once again using an existing film for Tarantino to riff on and rethink, maybe his IS in a creative rut considering his hasn\’t written an original idea since Kill Bill (and even then obviously Tarantino\’s films are like mash-ups of other ideas or blatant thefts from other films — City Of Fire is liberally stolen from for Resevoir Dogs). Let\’s not forget if you\’ve ever read any Tarantino bios, he basically took an unfinished Roger Avary script to write True Romance and he tried to bilk Avary\’s credit for Pulp Fiction after he himself had lifted Avary\’s short film \”Pandemonium Reigns\”and incorporated it into Fiction.
So yeah, no question, the dude can write his ass off, but his ideas aren\’t the most original in the whole world and frankly, Django Unchained sounds like Inglourious Basterds all over again, but instead of the jews getting revenge — his only theme it seems — on the nazis, its the slaves getting revenge on their masters.
It\’s an idea ripe for commentary on racism in America, but lord knows, Inglorious had zero commentary on anti-semitism, or the rank evils of Nazism or their deplorable ideas. It was a revenge B-movie and that\’s it. So think about it before you open your mouth.
I like the idea of putting some \”Mandingo\” and Addio, zio Tom\” up in the spaghetti western mix, but referencing the title to the whole Django thing is kinda lame (especially for german speaking people, this gag is seriously old).
let\’s hope they find someone fresh and comparable to a young Woody Strode as the lead (and Fred Williamson better have an awesome cameo!).
also I guess Morricone is pretty much a done deal.
i\’ll bet Keith Carradine plays the plantation owner
So much for the film being called the southern.
I want Will Smith.
Yeah, I know, I know, but I want him in the role.