So it looks like Tarantino’s finished his next script.
It was reported awhile back that he was going to tackle a Spaghetti Western next, and since then a few things have bubbled up in the form of names (Christoph Waltz, Keith Carradine, Franco Nero?) and at one point Uma Thurman had referred to it as “a Southern,” but that was really all there was as QT was still writing it. But now it’s done and the title page of that script has shown up on the internet via the twitter feed of @Agent Trainee (I saw it last night on SlashFilm’s Facebook Feed but at this point practically every film site on the net could be cited as a source).
Django Unchained. Django is a fairly popular character and even if you’ve never seen or heard of the film, chances are you’re aware of the name. And if you haven’t seen Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 spaghetti western (I haven’t seen it top to bottom but I’ve seen enough pieces of it to know it’s amazing) about a coffin-dragging gunslinger who takes on everybody from the KKK to Mexican bandits, it’s on Instant, if that’s an option for you.
At any rate, when this turned up last night and swept the internet, there was the understandable cautious optimism: “Sure, it sounds awesome and sure it’s reminiscent of the hand-written cover page for Basterds, but…is it real?”
Turns out the answer is yes. Yes indeed it is. SlashFilm reports (via Indiewire), that QT’s agency has confirmed the title. And not only THAT but Anne Thompson over at Indiewire has also claimed to have read the script and describes it thusly (spoiler warning?):
Django is a freed slave, who, under the tutelage of a German bounty hunter (played by Christopher Waltz the evil Nazi officer in Inglorious Basterds) 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 there ya go. Sounds amazing and more Christoph Waltz is always welcome and with QT having said this about the racism angle “I want to explore something that really hasn’t been done. I want to do movies that deal with America’s horrible past with slavery and stuff but do them like spaghetti westerns, not like big issue movies. I want to do them like they’re genre films, but they deal with everything that America has never dealt with because it’s ashamed of it, and other countries don’t really deal with because they don’t feel they have the right to” I think it’s fair to expect something amazing. As always, we’ll keep you posted.
15 comments
I just peed a lot.
Whoa! This sounds incredible
Slavery was no laughing matter. I understand QT has an “angle” with this, as is his modus operandi, but an exploitation flick about the slave trade could well offend a lot of people – black and white.
And Nazi war effort was a laughing matter? Ha! Rock on Mr Tarantino!
Who will play the slave? I hope it is someone interesting, maybe Idris Elba? Or perhaps Samuel L. Jackson coming back into the fold. Or perhaps, and please God hope this is true, Eddie Murphy
OH MY FUCKING GOD YES
Sounds great. Now we will have to see how a QT picture will look and feel without the great Sally Menke as its editor.
Murphy would be inspired casting depending on how the character is on the page.
Your head, it’s in your ass.
Considering django is Romani for “i awake”, the title Django Unchained is pretty spot on.
I Awake Unchained is a pretty badass title for a slavery themed Western.
I am very excited about this!
QT is one of the few directors, who I completely trust to take me as a viewer by the hand
and tell me a story that only he could tell. In a way that only QT could come up with.
Unfortunately, as far as I know QT, we can start hoping for this movie when the first real trailer or reel appears.
That is no diss on the man, but in the past QT has talked about a dozen amazing ideas like the movies were just around the corner, but then they never happened. Let’s hope it’s different with Django, people!!
@S.D. Bob Plissken: I was not aware of the meaning behind the name, thanks a lot. And yes, it is one badass title!!
@ Jeremy G. Butler: Revisit the original Django in its entirety, man!! Really it is worth it, one of the great spaghetti westerns of all time (the sequel Django strikes again, though totally different in tone, is not bad either)
This one isn’t just idle talk like most of his ideas. The script is finished. It has been turned in. The Weinsteins have already set-up a production deal for it. This sucker is getting made this year and should be out sometime next year.
I understand where you are coming from. QT prattles on about countless projects that will likely never happen………….most of which have probably never even made it to the scripting stage. This is the real deal though.
Go smoke a dick.
Never been Tarantino’s biggest fan, but he’s an interesting writer so I’d like to see what he’s come up with. IB really fell flat with me in many ways, but I know it has it’s fans. Let’s hope this one’s even better. I for one can’t wait to see the uproar the modern south and it’s veritable army of slavery and civil war apologists will generate if the script truly focuses on making clear the scope of southern villainy during those turbulent years, as this article suggests it will
If the Confederate Memorial Weekend Ceremony I just watched happen in the square of Savannah, GA this past weekend is any indication, their “veritable army” is a soggy, lazy, ill-numbered bunch.
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