Jamie Foxx will take the lead in Quentin Tarantino's latest film, the western-influenced Django Unchained, according to US reports.
Variety (paywall) says the Oscar-winning actor was selected over stars such as Idris Elba, Terrence Howard and Chris Tucker for the role of a freed slave who learns to become a contract killer and eventually returns to his old plantation to retrieve his wife. Kerry Washington, who starred opposite Foxx in Ray, is in line to take the latter role. Leonardo DiCaprio has already been cast as the plantation's sadistic owner, Calvin Candie, with Tarantino regular Samuel L Jackson as a sinister slave named Stephen who does his bidding.
Another Tarantino favourite, Christoph Waltz, will play a German bounty hunter who teaches Django the tricks of the trade. The film's title is influenced by the 1966 Sergio Corbucci spaghetti western Django, starring Franco Nero. Nero was at one point tipped to take a small role in the new film, but said last month that he'd received no official approach. The film is believed to be set in the 19th-century deep south rather than the old west; Tarantino has referred to it as a "southern".
Will Smith was the first actor to be named in connection with the role of Django, but he appears to have turned it down. Reviews of Tarantino's leaked screenplay suggest it is peppered liberally with the n-word, which some critics speculate may have made Smith uncomfortable with the role.
Foxx won an Oscar in 2005 for his portrayal of musician Ray Charles in Ray.
