Well, that was fast. Just this morning we reported that a twitter account (that has since been deleted) got their hands on the script for Quentin Tarantino‘s upcoming spaghetti western. The title is now confirmed to be Django Unchained and we have a wealth of plot and production details.
Thompson on Hollywood first got the news that Tarantino has completed the script and it now lies in the hands of The Weinstein Company. His agency WME also confirm his Oscar-winning Inglourious Basterds star Christoph Waltz will lead the film, with the original star of the 1966 film Django (also, of course, serving as inspiration for this film) Franco Nero attached, along with Keith Carradine and Treat Williams.
It gets better. Shadow and Act uncovered the following Hollywood Elsewhere comment from a user who has claimed to have read the entire script. The basis matches up with what was previously though to be the logline. Check it out below.
Django is a freed slave, who, under the tutelage of a German bounty hunter (Christopher Waltz) becomes a bad-ass bounty hunter himself, and after assisting Waltz in taking down some bad guys for profit, is helped by Waltz in tracking down his slave wife and liberating her from an evil plantation owner. And that doesn’t even half begin to cover it! This film deals with racism as I’ve rarely seen it handled in a Hollywood film. While it’s 100 percent pure popcorn and revenge flick, it is pure genius in the way it takes on the evil slave owning south. Think of what he did with the Nazis in Inglorious and you’ll get a sense of what he’s doing with slave owners and slave overseers in this one.
And finally Deadline reports that that The Weinstein Company will handle domestic distribution and after helping with Inglourious Basterds, Universal International has first look to co-finance and oversee foreign distribution. Tarantino will also meet with Warner Bros, Paramount and Sony Pictures as other options.
The best news of all, however, is that Tarantino is pursuing a “top-shelf” cast for the film and it will shoot either late summer or fall depending on the availability of his cast. This could put it as early as a Cannes 2012 debut. I know it is a lot to take in, but with Waltz and Tarantino teaming up for a western, this has shot up to one of my most-anticipated projects on the horizon. But I didn’t have to tell you that.
What do you think about this new info? Who should join Tarantino’s western?