Will Smith to star in Tarantinos next "Django Unchained" ?

[Deberg_1990]

Wow, at first glance sounds like oil and water....but im down with this in a weird way. QT hasnt let me down yet.


http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hea...trunner-186250


Will Smith has emerged as the frontrunner to star in Quentin Tarantino’s next film, Django Unchained, a spaghetti Western about a slave in the Old South who teams with a German bounty hunter to search for his wife.

Tarantino stalwarts Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz also are circling key parts.

The film, Tarantino’s follow-up to his worldwide blockbuster Inglourious Basterds, will be distributed domestically by the Weinstein Co., but Tarantino is in the process of selecting a studio partner to release the film internationally. Sources say he was meeting with Universal executives Friday, and similar meetings with Sony, Paramount, Warner Bros. and possibly others have been scheduled.

Sources prepped for those meetings say Tarantino would like Smith to star in the film, the script for which has been making the rounds in recent days to wide acclaim. No official offer has been made to Smith, and any deal would of course be subject to working out financials, which might be difficult given Smith's status as one of Hollywood's few sure-thing stars.


Indeed, though Smith has been out of multiplexes since 2008’s Seven Pounds, he is still considered among the top two or three box-office draws worldwide.

Smith is being teed up for the title role of Django, a freed slave who seeks to reunite with his slave wife, a journey that will see him team with a German bounty hunter to take down an evil plantation owner.

Tarantino wrote the bounty hunter part with Waltz in mind, according to insiders. The German ends up training Django and helping him seek his wife.

Jackson would play the house slave to the bad guy, Monsieur Calvin Candie. The slave is an expert manipulator and will face off with Django.

Smith and his reps have received the screenplay, which could be a hot potato due to the themes of racism and the liberal use of the N-word. It's unclear whether Smith has read the script yet. The actor manages his image very carefully, but the part is heroic and could be iconic. And let’s not forget that Denzel Washington won his two Oscars playing characters who used the N-word.


Tarantino is aiming for a fall shoot in the South, possibly in Louisiana, but the exact locale has not been determined.

[KcMizzou]

Originally Posted by Touchdown Kansas City !!!

I loved the part Christoph Waltz played.

He was amazing from the start. That guy's a hell of an actor.

[MoreLemonPledge]

Originally Posted by KcMizzou

He was amazing from the start. That guy's a hell of an actor.

Spoiler!

After his character died, the movie definitely lost something. The ending itself was good enough, but felt more like an epilogue without Waltz.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by MoreLemonPledge

Spoiler!

After his character died, the movie definitely lost something. The ending itself was good enough, but felt more like an epilogue without Waltz.

True. I thought...

Spoiler!

...that maybe his death was setting up a sequel where Django was sort of a "lone rider" but then he got his wife back and left with her. Maybe in a sequel his wife is killed and he loses any softness, maybe kind of like an "Outlaw Jose Wales" kind of thing? I'd love to see QT make more of these.

[Cornstock]

Originally Posted by listopencil

True. I thought...

Spoiler!

...that maybe his death was setting up a sequel where Django was sort of a "lone rider" but then he got his wife back and left with her. Maybe in a sequel his wife is killed and he loses any softness, maybe kind of like an "Outlaw Jose Wales" kind of thing? I'd love to see QT make more of these.

Speaking of sequels...Feel free to shoot me down here...Just going out on a limb...

A QT spaghetti western with a Clint Eastwood cameo. Or even a real role.

epic craziness

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by Cornstock

Speaking of sequels...Feel free to shoot me down here...Just going out on a limb...

A QT spaghetti western with a Clint Eastwood cameo. Or even a real role.

epic craziness

I would probably hose down the entire theater with joy.

[Gravedigger]

Originally Posted by Cornstock

Speaking of sequels...Feel free to shoot me down here...Just going out on a limb...

A QT spaghetti western with a Clint Eastwood cameo. Or even a real role.

epic craziness

He'd just be talking to an empty chair the whole cameo... why waste everybody's time?

[Predarat]

Originally Posted by Cornstock

Speaking of sequels...Feel free to shoot me down here...Just going out on a limb...

A QT spaghetti western with a Clint Eastwood cameo. Or even a real role.

epic craziness

The only reason I would shoot you down over that is to steal that idea and try to aquire profit over it. That sounds awesome.

[Deberg_1990]

At last, Will Smith explains why he turned down the part. Do you believe him?



Quentin Tarantino originally went to Will Smith to play Django in Django Unchained, and that would have been a brilliant bit of casting. The globe's most beloved, safest black superstar shooting a white lady in cold blood? Amazing!

But Smith passed on the part, and now he has given Entertainment Weekly his official reasoning. I almost buy this:

Django wasn’t the lead, so it was like, I need to be the lead. The other character was the lead! I was like, ‘No, Quentin, please, I need to kill the bad guy!

It's interesting to hear a big Hollywood star be open about something like that - he has to be the top guy in the movie, he can't share the spotlight. Of course that's an enormous misreading of Django Unchained on every level, but I also believe that Smith sort of simply didn't get the script.

I think there's more behind Smith's passing on the part, including the fact that he was uncomfortable with some of the film's racial aspects and that he wanted to have a rewrite done, but that goofy quote does seem to sum up enough of it.

http://badassdigest.com/2013/03/25/w...ngo-unchained/

[Cave Johnson]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

At last, Will Smith explains why he turned down the part. Do you believe him?



Quentin Tarantino originally went to Will Smith to play Django in Django Unchained, and that would have been a brilliant bit of casting. The globe's most beloved, safest black superstar shooting a white lady in cold blood? Amazing!

But Smith passed on the part, and now he has given Entertainment Weekly his official reasoning. I almost buy this:

Django wasn’t the lead, so it was like, I need to be the lead. The other character was the lead! I was like, ‘No, Quentin, please, I need to kill the bad guy!

It's interesting to hear a big Hollywood star be open about something like that - he has to be the top guy in the movie, he can't share the spotlight. Of course that's an enormous misreading of Django Unchained on every level, but I also believe that Smith sort of simply didn't get the script.

I think there's more behind Smith's passing on the part, including the fact that he was uncomfortable with some of the film's racial aspects and that he wanted to have a rewrite done, but that goofy quote does seem to sum up enough of it.

http://badassdigest.com/2013/03/25/w...ngo-unchained/

I believe Will Smith is a giant asshole.

[SnakeXJones]

Originally Posted by Cave Johnson

I believe Will Smith is a giant asshole.

He is a pussy also

[bowener]

I believe Will Smith probably tries to go for the safe part, and by safe I mean the part that panders to the widest audience, and keeps him open to the most roles in the future. He will probably never act in a role that may harm future prospects, even if that role could win him an oscar like Django could have. I don't know if I can blame him since he makes a fortune per role.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by bowener

I believe Will Smith probably tries to go for the safe part, and by safe I mean the part that panders to the widest audience, and keeps him open to the most roles in the future. He will probably never act in a role that may harm future prospects, even if that role could win him an oscar like Django could have. I don't know if I can blame him since he makes a fortune per role.

The irony here is that this movie ended up a huge hit anyways, so it wasn't much of a risk ultimately. And lately his movies have been crap. Your right, he's a little too conservative.

[ChiefsFanatic]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

At last, Will Smith explains why he turned down the part. Do you believe him?



Quentin Tarantino originally went to Will Smith to play Django in Django Unchained, and that would have been a brilliant bit of casting. The globe's most beloved, safest black superstar shooting a white lady in cold blood? Amazing!

But Smith passed on the part, and now he has given Entertainment Weekly his official reasoning. I almost buy this:

Django wasn’t the lead, so it was like, I need to be the lead. The other character was the lead! I was like, ‘No, Quentin, please, I need to kill the bad guy!

It's interesting to hear a big Hollywood star be open about something like that - he has to be the top guy in the movie, he can't share the spotlight. Of course that's an enormous misreading of Django Unchained on every level, but I also believe that Smith sort of simply didn't get the script.

I think there's more behind Smith's passing on the part, including the fact that he was uncomfortable with some of the film's racial aspects and that he wanted to have a rewrite done, but that goofy quote does seem to sum up enough of it.

http://badassdigest.com/2013/03/25/w...ngo-unchained/

Will Smith also turned down the role of NEO in The Matrix, because he just "didn't get it" after he was pitched by the The Wachowskis.

But The Wild Wild West made him a good payday at least. I like Will Smith, but to me he has lost his star power. His lame, safe movie choices, along with his seeming insistence that his son become a movie star, no longer makes me excited about any movie in which he is the star.

Jamie Foxx killed it in Django Unchained and Smith never could have pulled it off.