Leonardo DiCaprio in talks for Tarantino's Django Unchained
Story by Jack Foley
LEONARDO DiCaprio is in early talks to play one of the lead villains in Quentin Tarantino’s spaghetti western homage Django Unchained.
The film, which is also still courting Will Smith as the lead, will follow a slave in the Old South who teams with a German bounty hunter (potentially Inglourious Basterd‘s Christoph Waltz) to search for his wife.
According to sources quotes by The Hollywood Reporter, DiCaprio is potentially being lined up to play a plantation owner named Monsieur Calvin Candie, who uses his property as ‘a playground for him to sexually torture women slaves while forcing male ones to engage is death matches’.
Candie wins Django’s wife in a poker tournament, putting him on the slave’s hit-list.
He wouldn’t appear until the second half of the film, but would dominate much of proceedings thereafter.
DiCaprio is reportedly the first choice villain for Tarantino, who has been longing to work with the actor for years (he reportedly originally wrote Waltz’s role for him in Basterds).
And he has been linked to the role for some time, although negotiations are at a very early stage – although he is said to be keen on a union.
As for Smith’s involvement, Tarantino is allegedly still keen to have him play Django even though Jamie Foxx and Idris Elba have since emerged as potential candidates.
Tarantino regular Samuel L Jackson is also reportedly being lined up for a role, potentially as a house slave named Stephen, who lords over other slaves and is a character Django would face after defeating Candie.
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