DJANGO UNCHAINED: Jamie Foxx Cast by Quentin Tarantino

Jamie Foxx has been cast in Django Unchained. Jamie Foxx being cast in Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained (2012) answers the question of who will play the lead in the Western movie. Jamie Foxx joins a cast that already includes Leonardo DiCaprio,  Samuel L. Jackson, and Christoph Waltz.

From Variety:

Foxx will play the title role of Django, a freed slave who teams with a German bounty hunter to take on an evil plantation owner in order to retrieve his long-lost love, Broomhilda. Kerry Washington, who played opposite Foxx in “Ray,” has met with Tarantino for the latter role; she’s one of a handful of contenders in the mix.Leonardo DiCaprio has been set as the sadistic slavemaster Calvin Candie, while Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” star Christoph Waltz will play Django’s friend and mentor. Samuel L. Jackson is expected to play Stephen, Candie’s right-hand man.

The Weinstein Co. will distribute the pic Stateside; Sony Pictures will handle the release overseas.

Tarantino originally offered the role of Django to Will Smith, who passed on the sure-to-be controversial part. The helmer then met with Idris Elba, Terrence Howard and Chris Tucker in recent weeks before settling on Foxx.

Foxx got his start as a comedian on “In Living Color” and won an Oscar in 2005 for playing musician Ray Charles in Taylor Hackford’s biopic “Ray.”

Thesp will soon be seen as a murderous mentor in the comedy “Horrible Bosses” and will further flex his funnybone in drag as the star and scribe of “The Skank Robbers.”

CAA, which reps Foxx, had no comment on the casting. The actor is also repped by King Management.

Idris Elba choice to pursue a role originally developed for Tom Cruise in Guillermo Del Toro‘s Pacific Rim.

More on the plot of Django Unchained:

Jamie Foxx is the freed slave Django. With the German dentist turned bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), he kills white slave-runners and then tries to free his wife Broomhilda (not yet cast) from bigshot slaver Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), [a Mississippi plantation owner].

For more Django Unchained videos, photos, and news, check out our Django Unchained Page. Django Unchained will be released in US theaters on December 25, 2012.

Source: Slashfilm, Variety