Oscar website glitch leaks nomination a week early... and it's for Tarantino's Django Unchained





While some poor employee of the Academy Awards probably got into a lot of trouble for accidentally leaking classified Oscar information, the costume designer for Django Unchained won't be complaining.

A week before the nominations are to be officially announced the website Oscars.org mistakenly published that Sharen Davis is up for a gong for her outstanding work on Quentin Tarantino's latest epic adventure film.

The site read: 'This is the third Academy Award nomination for Sharen Davis. She was previously nominated for Dreamgirls (2006) and Ray (2004).'



Leaked nod: The costume designer for Django Unchained Sharen Davis is up for an Oscar. The information was accidentally leaked by the Academy And while no one should have known yet, Ms Davis couldn't contain her excitement when she was told the news by Vanity Fair magazine.



Hat trick: Sharen Davis appears to have been nominated for the third time by the Academy



Speaking to the publication she said: 'Oh my gosh! I haven’t even lost weight!'

'I never thought about an Oscar in my life. When they called me for Ray, I thought it was a prank call. I said, "Am I going to open the door and see one of those fake, standing Oscars?"'

According to Ms Davis, the challenge with Django - set just before the Civil War in the southern states of America - was that is a 'period movie within a period movie'.

She said: 'It’s set before the Civil War, but it’s really a spaghetti Western, which is a late-60s, early-70s movie.

'I wanted to make it a rock 'n' roll, spaghetti Western.'

The project meant digging up authentic spaghetti-Western eyewear.



'Sunglasses are usually considered props, but I was asked to find them. I started searching through films that I thought Quentin would like, because that’s what he relates to.

'You can show him the actual history, but that won’t do it. They [Foxx's glasses] were Charles Bronson’s from The White Buffalo.

'They’re hammered metal from 1830. They’re hard to put on. They just splay! I only had one pair,' she said.



During scenes when Dr King Schultz, a bounty hunter, takes the freed slave Django to choose a costume for the pair’s next con, Django selects a ruffled, ridiculous Little Lord Fauntleroy suit.

Detailed: Director Quentin Tarantino wanted to keep things as authentic as possible combing the spaghetti western style with a genuine Civil War era feel

Good sport: Davis was worried that Jamie Foxx wouldn't wear the ridiculous Little Lord Fauntleroy suit but he apparently loved it

'Quentin had it in the script as powder blue. And I said, "I just can’t do that. It is very 70s, but that’s going to look like polyester no matter what I make it out of".

'I slipped a copy of Thomas Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy in the back of the research book. He didn’t say anything, but he saw it.

'He sort of said later, "Oh! Make him look like Blue Boy."'

Tarantino’s gory action sequences also presented another challenge.



Ms Davis said: 'There was so much blood! I would take the clothes off the backs of the actors when they got shot, literally hand wash it, blow dry it, put some kind of paneling in, and they would re-squib it.

'It was old school.'

Leading lady: Kerry Washington plays Django's love interest and fellow slave. Her costumes reflect her journey from being powerless to be being free



Dressed like a gent: Leonardo DiCaprio plays an evil plantation owner. His dress is typical of that time



To dress Django’s love interest Broomhilda, played by Kerry Washington, Davis referenced the spaghetti-Western tradition of super-saturated flashbacks and visions.



For Broomhilda’s final, ride-off-into-the-night look, Ms Davis chose a belted full skirt and a button-down shirt.



'That was her segue into becoming a Western woman. She’s saying, "I’m as strong as you, honey. Let’s go!"



'I illustrated her whole arc. She started in a dark purple and ended in a light purple. Now she’s totally free,' she said.



The costume designer’s only sadness, she says, is that so many costumes never made it to the big screen.



She added: 'There are barely any clothes in the movie. It breaks my heart!'



Although, judging by the early response to Davis’s work, it seems there are just enough.