Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained

[Dr Doom]

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/motion-c...ango-unchained

Quentin Tarantino's new Western has a title: 'Django Unchained'

Holy crap.

When people were reporting "A Southern" as the title of Quentin Tarantino's long-rumored next film, I knew that wasn't right. The things I'd heard from people close to the project suggested that the title, when we did end up hearing it, would instantly get western nerds excited, and I chose not to print anything, waiting instead for what I hoped would be an official announcement.

Instead, you can thank Twitter for this one.

Earlier today, @AgentTrainee simply tweeted the word "Jealous?" and a picture of a title page that should look familiar to anyone who read either "Kill Bill" or "Inglourious Basterds." And if that title page is right, then we know know a few new things.

First, Quentin finished the latest draft of the script only three days ago.

Second, he's making a motherscratchin' "Django" movie.

Django was first played by Franco Nero in 1966 in a Sergio Corbucci film that is regarded by many as one of the best of the spaghetti Westerns. Thanks to the vagaries of international copyright law, there have been dozens of movies since where Django appears, and while few of them are genuine sequels, Nero did reprise the character a few times.

More than that, though, "Django" has entered the culture as one of the great Western icons. The character appeared in the first film dragging a coffin, inside of which he had a giant gatling gun, and he's inspired characters in games, movies, anime, and more. It's no accident that Boba Fett's dad is named Jango in the "Star Wars" prequels, or that Miike referred to the character in his own spaghetti Western tribute.

Corbucci's film is particularly violent, especially for the era, and that brutality is part of the kick of the movie. Django goes through hell in the film, eventually having to figure out how to fire a revolver with two broken hands. There's a moment in the film that might feel a little bit familiar to fans of "Reservoir Dogs," so should we be surprised to hear that Tarantino has a love of the character?

I've seen so many spaghetti Westerns with Tarantino over the years at the various festivals he's thrown in Austin and Los Angeles, and his love of the genre is deep and sincere. And to hear him talk about using the Reconstruction-era South as a backdrop for the film is exciting enough… but then you add in this?



Keep in mind, we heard from Franco Nero himself that he was going to be in the film, and he's the one who suggested that Christoph Waltz will also appear in the movie. If Nero's actually playing the title role, that is incredible news. He still looks great, and I would love to see him wrap the character up now, nearly 50 years after he first played it, especially facing a foe as formidable as Waltz.

[Rorschach]

Sounds dope. A western from Quentin should be fun.

[Broddie]

He's a big fan and I always gave him props for that. Kill Bill Vol. 2 and Reservoir Dogs both featured homages to the series. That being said I just don't think he has it in him as a director to do justice to the sheer madness of Corbucci's original or surrealness of the sequel. It's cool to see this series continue after all these years though. Franco Nero is too damn awesome to not be headlining at least one more western in his lifetime. It certainly will put a lot of people on to it who will through revisionist history claim that they were always fans of it.

[Dr Doom]

I think both of the original Django movies are in the budget bin for 1 buck each here, so I'll probably pick them up soon.

[Rorschach]

Never seen the original movies, will make the effort to watch them some time over the coming months.

[Rorschach]

Apparently, Will Smith is up for the lead. With Sam Jackson and Christoph Waltz also being mentioned.

[Broddie]

Hmmm could be interesting if the fresh prince is really willing to challenge himself and NOT play it safe. He could be a good actor when he wants to. Unfortunately that's not very often. Still it could redeem him for Wild Wild West if he plays it right. I read that Sam Jack is up for the role of "house *****" lmao that's priceless. Franco Nero still definitely needs to be in this in some capacity.

[Dr Doom]

Christoph Waltz and Franco Nero have already been confirmed to be in this. Sam Jackson is rumored and Will Smith is apparently Tarantino's first pick. Personally I have zero interest in seeing Will Smith in anything, but if Tarantino can destroy his awful typecasting and one-note acting with this, it might actually be a good thing.

[Krypto]

I will laugh my ass off when Tarantino gets the script back with Will Smith's and Tom Cruise's "corrections". Tom Cruise is the reason I Am Legend ended up completely different from the source material according to Will when he appeared on the Jonathan Ross Show, he gives Cruise all his scripts to "look over, approve and correct" so his image is not hurt by the projects he takes and since the original book has the hero revealed as the villain to the new generation of humanity that acts like vampires, Tom altered the script so Will didn't end up being a villain. So I'd really like to see the script post-Cruise "corrections" and if Quentin Tarantino would even want to direct the "new improved" version of his work.

[Dr Doom]

That's one of the reasons I don't see this happening. Smith doesn't have the balls to pick up an edgy role like this.