UPDATED:

At last! Quentin Tarantino has finally settled on DJANGO UNCHAINED’s lead. Is it the long-rumoured Will Smith? THE WIRE’s Idris Elba? Chris Tucker even?

Nope.

The role of Django belongs to (drum roll please)…

Jaime Foxx!

That is all.

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08/06/11

Could one-time poster boy turned serious thesp Leonardo DiCaprio be playing the villain in Quentin Tarantino’s highly anticipated western DJANGO UNCHAINED? It’s certainly looking that way…

Various sources are reporting that DiCaprio is currently in talks to play Calvin Candie, a vicious slave-owner whose Mississippi plantation ‘Candyland’ is home to ritual acts of sexual and sadistic abuse towards its workers – one of which happens to be the titular hero’s wife. Cue a ‘Roaring Rampage of Revenge’-type mission to free her.

While not the biggest DiCaprio fan personally (isn’t he a little one-note?), I certainly applaud the actor for considering such an unglamorous and potentially controversial role. Plus he’s far more suited to this than the last part QT had earmarked for him – it’s hard to imagine now (since Christophe Waltz did such an excellent job), but INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS chief bad guy Hans Landa was originally written with him in mind also. Seems the director has wanted to collaborate with DiCaprio for some time. Well it’s working for Scorsese I guess.

As recently speculated in our previous coverage here, DiCaprio could be going head to head with Will Smith as Django, and the aforementioned Christoph Waltz as his German mentor, though it must be stressed there’s been no official confirmation as yet – with additional names Jaime Foxx (COLLATERAL), Chris Tucker (THE FIFTH ELEMENT) and Idris Elba (THOR) also in talks for the lead.

As always we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop.

American readers can expect to see Tarantino’s latest opus on the 25th of December 2012 (while us Brits sleep off our Christmas dinners). A UK release should follow very shortly.

Would DiCaprio make a believable bad guy? Who’s your pick for Django? Let us know with your comments below!