Tarantino Resurrects Dennis Christopher For DJANGO UNCHAINED

Quentin Tarantino is resurrecting the film careers of long forgotten actors he grew up watching in the 80's on film and tv but who nobody has seen much of lately. After the recent casting of 80's star Gerard McRaney for a small role in his spaghetti/black slavery western Django Unchained, Variety reports that the walking film historian has signed up Dennis Christopher for a role in his new movie. Christopher was part of the Chariots of Fire cast that helped the 1981 movie win a Best Picture Oscar and starred in movies such as California Dreaming and Vernon Zimmerman's cult horror/comedy Fade to Black. More recently he has appeared on Deadwood, the HBO western that co-star McRaney also was part of. Conceivably of course Tarantino may have become aware of both actors via that show... but we all know that like Chris Nolan these were the actors that were frequently on their screens at an impressionable time when their love for cinema became an over-arching obsession. In Django Unchained, Christopher will play Leo Moguy, a lawyer who sets up a meeting between Leonardo DiCaprio's slave-trader bastard Calvin Candie and the flamboyant German bounty hunter Dr. Schultz, played by Christoph Waltz. A small role but one that will give Christopher the kind of exposure he hasn't seen in sooo many years. In fact this will be only his second film in six years (Henry Jaglom's 2010 indie Queen of the Lot is the other but I bet you ain't seen it). Oscar winner Jamie Foxx plays the black slave who is freed, trained under the tutelage of Christoph Waltz€™s eccentric former dentist turned bounty hunter, and then becomes an all out Clint Eastwood style gunslinger, hellbent on saving his bride who is enslaved by Leonardo DiCaprio€™s evil plantation owner. Samuel L. Jackson is DiCaprio's right-hand man Stephen, but the role of Ace Woody, a ruthless henchman to DiCaprio, Kevin Costner recently pulled out of playing and he hasn't been replaced yet. There are other roles still to be cast, most notably that of Broomhilda, the wife of Django. Kerry Washington was who I thought was perfect for it having read the script and it's said Tarantino agreed as she was an early contender but it doesn't look like that casting is going to happen, rumoured to be because of the excessive nudity the role requires. All the loose ends should be tied up soon however as the film will begin shooting in January in New Orleans and will be in theatres Christmas Day next year.