Leo DiCaprio in Talks for the Villain in Tarantino's 'Django Unchained'

After being rumored last week for a major role in the film, Deadline now reports that Leonardo DiCaprio has entered discussions to play the villain in Quentin Tarantino's new spaghetti western flick Django Unchained. The story follows a freed slave named Django who, under the tutelage of a German bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) becomes a bad-ass bounty hunter himself. Then after helping his German mentor, the two team-up to track down Django's slave wife and liberate her from a man named Calvin Candie (DiCaprio) a charming but ruthless plantation owner whom Django must cross in order to get his wife back.

More specifically, DiCaprio's despicable character runs Candyland, a club in Mississippi where female slaves are exploited as sex objects and males are pitted against each other in "mandingo" style death matches. DiCaprio was once rumored to take a role in Inglourious Basterds (coincidentally enough, the role of Hans Landa which ended up going to Christoph Waltz), but now it appears this project will be the first time he and Quentin Tarantino work together. The prospect itself a couple years back was exciting, but now that DiCaprio and Tarantino are finally collaborating, I'm absolutely stoked to see how this turns out.

As for who will play the titular hero of our story, Will Smith name is still being mentioned (as was previously reported), but names like Idris Elba (The Losers, Thor), Jamie Foxx and even Chris Tucker are being talked about. Before you cringe at the last name, remember Tarantino got a decent performance out of Tucker in Jackie Brown, so anything is possible (even if the actor hasn't done a film since Rush Hour 3). If Smith gets the role, this would be a monumentally fantastic cast coming together for such a niche genre film, that I can't help but get excited. Of course, Elba is a great actor in his own right, so we'll see what happens. Either way, Tarantino has my full attention now for sure. What about you?

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