Django Unchained

Django Unchained is an upcoming Western film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Kerry Washington, and is scheduled to be released on December 25, 2012 in the United States and Canada.^[1][2] Principal photography started in California in November 2011,^[3] Wyoming in February 2012,^[4] and at the a National Historic Landmark Evergreen Plantation in Wallace, Louisiana, outside of New Orleans in March 2012.^[5]

Django Unchained is set in the Deep South, and follows Django (Foxx), a freed slave who treks across America with Dr. King Schultz (Waltz), a German dentist turned bounty hunter. The title and setting of the film appear to be inspired by the 1960s spaghetti western Django and its many unofficial sequels, with original Django star Franco Nero having a cameo.

Plot

Django (Jamie Foxx) is a slave living in the Deep South after having been separated from his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington). When Django is held for a slave auction, Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), a bounty hunter, frees Django from his vicious masters, the Speck brothers (James Remar and James Russo) and gives him the option of hunting down and killing the Brittle Brothers, a ruthless gang of killers whom only Django has seen. In return, Schultz will free Django from slavery completely and help rescue Broomhilda from the plantation of the charming but ruthless Francophile owner, Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Cast

• Jamie Foxx as Django^[8][9]
• Christoph Waltz as Dr. King Schultz
• Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie^[9]
• Kerry Washington as Broomhilda Von Shaft^[10]
• Walton Goggins as Billy Crash
• Don Johnson as Spencer ‘Big Daddy’ Bennett^[11]
• Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen^[12]
• Laura Cayouette as Lara Lee Candie-Fitzwilly
• Dennis Christopher as Leonide Moguy^[13]
• Cooper Huckabee as Roger ‘Little Raj’ Brittle
• Doc Duhame as Ellis Brittle
• M. C. Gainey as Big John Brittle
• Tom Savini as Tracker Cheney^[14]
• Anthony LaPaglia as Jano^[15]
• Bruce Dern as Curtis Carrucan
• James Russo as Dicky Speck
• James Remar as Ace Speck^[16][17]
• Tom Wopat as Marshall Gill Tatum^[17]
• Misty Upham as Minnie^[18]
• RZA as Thaddeus^[19][18]
• Michael Bacall as Smitty Bacall
• Ned Bellamy as Wilson
• Franco Nero as Amerigo Vassepi^[20]
• Sharon Pierre-Louis as Little Jody
• Jonah Hill as “Regulator”^[21]

It was originally reported that Will Smith was Tarantino’s first choice for the role of Django, but in the end Jamie Foxx was cast for the role.^[22] Additionally, Franco Nero was rumored for the role of Calvin Candie.^[23] Kevin Costner was in negotiations to join as Ace Woody,^[24] but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.^[25] Kurt Russell was cast instead,^[26] but also later left the role.^[27] When Kurt Russell dropped out, the role of Ace Woody was not recast but instead the character would be merged with Walton Goggins’ character, Billy Crash.^[28]

Jonah Hill was offered the role of Scotty in the film, but he turned it down due to scheduling conflicts with The Watch.^[29][30] However, on June 15, 2012 it was announced that Hill was available and joined the cast, but in an unspecified role.^[31] On April 4, 2012, Joseph Gordon-Levitt announced that he would be unable to star in the film because of a prior commitment to make his directorial debut on Don Jon’s Addiction. Gordon-Levitt explained, “I would have loved, loved to have done it. He’s one of my very favorite filmmakers.”^[32]

Development

Development on Django Unchained began in 2007, when Quentin Tarantino, speaking with The Daily Telegraph discussed an idea for a form of spaghetti western set in America’s Deep South which he called “a southern”, stating that he wanted “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”.^[33]

In December of 2009 Tarantino revealed that he had another project but wouldn’t reveal any details except that it was less epic in scale and in a different genre entirely from Basterds and that he could finish it in a five to six month period of intensive writing, to which on May 2, 2011, it was confirmed that project was the “Southern” that he had talked about in 2007, the title is Django Unchained and features the revenge of a slave on his former master.^[34] Tarantino finished the script on April 26, 2011, and handed in the final draft to The Weinstein Company.^{[citation needed]}

The film is being shot in the anamorphic format on 35 mm film.^[35] Django Unchained will be the first Tarantino film not edited by Sally Menke, who died in 2010. Editing duties will be handled by Fred Raskin, who has worked as an assistant editor in Tarantino’s previous films.^{[citation needed]}

The first teaser poster^[36] was inspired by the fan-art poster done by Federico Mancosu^[37]. The Italian artist artwork was published in May 2011, few days after the synopsis and the official title release. In August 2012, at the request of director Quentin Tarantino, the production companies bought the concept artwork from Federico Mancosu to use it for promotional purposes and within the set during filming (crew pass, clothing for staff and various merchandising).

Release

The film is due for release on December 25, 2012 in the United States by The Weinstein Company^[38] and on January 18, 2013 by Sony Pictures Releasing International in the United Kingdom.