Sacha Baron Cohen is being lined up to star in Quentin Tarantino’s next film, Django Unchained .
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Borat and Bruno actor will fill a “minor but shadowy role,” a gambler who purchases Django’s (Jamie Foxx) enslaved wife, played by Kerry Washington.
Tarantino has quite the shopping list when it comes to actors for this film, his first as a director since 2009’s Inglourious Basterds . Before signing Jamie Foxx for the title role , the Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill director had his eye on Will Smith .
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Miami Vice ‘s Don Johnson are the newest arrivals to the cast, in what will be a remake of the 1960’s spaghetti western Django .
Leonardo DiCaprio is also involved (cast in the role of ‘Calvin Candie,’ the main antagonist in the film), Kurt Russell will play ‘Ace Woody’ (a “vile and sadistic trainer of slaves who are forced to fight in death matches for a plantation owner”) and there will be a very welcome appearance from Samuel L Jackson as Stephen, a “wise, proud house slave.”
There’s also Christoph Waltz from Inglourious Basterds – he was injured on set in a horse stunt last month, though is said to have recovered.
All in all, it’s a stellar collection of names, and Cohen will just add extra sparkle to a glittering cast. Having siad that, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was Tarantino himself who dragged most viewers in.
Django Unchained is scheduled for release on December 26, 2012.
