Told ya
Jeff Goldsmith was worth listening too.
Deadline say
Leonardo DiCaprio has now officially entered talks to play the villainous Calvin Candie in
Django Unchained and it seems to be a simple matter of dotting the i's and crossing the t's before a deal is done.
Quentin Tarantino has finally got the man he has been desperate to work with for years after writing a role specifically for him in
Inglourious Basterds (either Hans Landa or Frederick Zoller) but the actor turned him down because he thought a real German was required. DiCaprio would play the evil plantation owner, an evil son of a bitch who who deals in Mandigo slaves at his Candyland home and has sexually exploited enslaved the wife of our title character Django, a slave freed by a German bounty hunter (
Christoph Waltz) who trains him into the art of contract killing. Calvin Candie is a significant part in the movie but one that is only similar in screen time to that of
David Carradine in the
Kill Bill saga and it calls for a charismatic, eccentric (hes a lover of French culture and demands being called Monsieur but would be embarrassed if you spoke French to him as he doesnt know the language) and believably powerful actor who can pose a threat. On paper, you f*cking hate this character more than any Tarantino villain in some time. Believe me folks, this is a very different kind of role for DiCaprio and is surely proof that here is a huge A-lister with no fear in taking on left-field roles that could alienate his fanbase (
Shutter Island,
Inception, forthcoming
J. Edgar don't really play to the screaming girls at his premieres) but he is just soooooooooooo frikkin good at what he does, he manages to retain the loyalty of his fans.
Tom Cruise never managed this. We can presume the role was written with DiCaprio in mind as was the role of his right hand man sidekick Stephen, described as the Basil Rathbone of house niggers" for
Samuel L. Jackson - who was cast
cast earlier.
Now that DiCaprio is secured, Tarantino will have to find himself a leading man as it would seem
Will Smith has turned down the opportunity to play the racially charged slave Django, which we had expected. Unlike DiCaprio, Smith is probably not prepared to risk his fanbase on this kind of controversial role and he clearly doesn't think his fans would be as loyal as DiCaprio to stick with him. Though maybe DiCaprio could still convince him to take the part? Tarantino, something he rarely has to do, is now looking further afield for a leading man. We presumed
Idris Elba had auditioned a few weeks ago and it's now been confirmed that he is in the mix. He is said to be challenging
Jamie Foxx who is emerging as a contender and whilst I think Elba is the way to go, Foxx could do something great with this role. Having seen his turn from a vulnerable and sweet taxi driver into a bad-ass action hero in
Collateral and believing it completely, I know he could do the necessary slave to deadly gunslinger character turn in Django. Also we have been warned Rush Hour loony
Chris Tucker might have a shot. It's another case of Quentin once again turning to his friends when his original choice hasn't worked out and I contend casting his pal Tucker, who the director has partied with semi-regularly since they worked on
Jackie Brown together in 1997, for the lead role would be as ill-advised as it was hiring
Eli Roth for a major supporting part in Inglourious Basterds. I could take Tucker in small doses but please don't cast him as Django. Plenty of other bite-sized roles he could have. Django Unchained will shoot late summer/autumn and will be released by The Weinstein Co. in the U.S. and by Sony overseas next year.