After working with Brad Pitt in the hugely successful Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino seems to have been bitten by the A-list megastar bug. And they don't get much bigger than his next desired collaborator. Will Smith has emerged as the frontrunner to lead Tarantino's next project, the slavery-themed, Spaghetti Western homage Django Unchained.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Smith is the prolific writer-director's top choice to play a "freed slave from the Old South who teams with a German bounty hunter to search for his wife."
Word has it that Tarantino wrote the bounty hunter character with Christoph Waltz in mind, though the Inglourious Basterds Academy Award winner has yet to officially sign on. And another one of Tarantino's favorite colleagues, Samuel L. Jackson, is circling the key part of the house slave to the bad guy, Monsieur Calvin Candie (who's yet to have an actor attached).
No official offer has been made to Smith, but the former Fresh Prince has been looking to get back in front of audiences since his 2008 appearance in the Gabriele Muccino-directed tearjerker, and all-around mess, Seven Pounds.
Those who've read the Django Unchained script point out that it could be Tarantino's most controversial yet streamlined one to date, packed with heavy racial themes and the liberal use of the N-word. You can expect the action-packed drama to kick off this fall, possibly in Louisiana, but the exact location has not been determined.
Do you think Will should go full Kunta Kinte? Speak your piece in the comments section below.
[Via The Hollywood Reporter]
