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Tag Archives: Kevin Costner
The RZA and Sacha Baron Cohen Join the Cast of Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained’
Quentin Tarantino’s newest project, Django Unchained, which is set to release on Christmas Day 2012, has gone through some cast changes (most notably Kevin Costner to Kurt Russell which I’m extremely thankful for), as well as some unexpected casting (Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, and James Remar are also names seen in the cast list, but the newest additions are by far the most surprising.
Former Wu-Tang member Robert Diggs, better known as RZA, has been cast as Thaddeus, a role that hasn’t had much news released about it. As well as that, Sacha Baron Cohen has been cast as Scotty, a role that also hasn’t had much disclosure. In fact, the entire film itself has thus far been kept under wraps relatively well, considering you haven’t read the PDF version of the script floating around the internet.
Be as skeptical as you want, but The RZA can act. Surprisingly well, I might add. Besides doing some of the soundtrack for the Kill Bill films, RZA’s face has been popping up in numerous projects like Coffee and Cigarettes, Funny People, American Gangster, Repo Men, Due Date, The Next Three Days, and most recently, A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas. He’s known for being a scene-stealer, and there’s a good chance he’ll fulfill that duty in Django.
As far as Sacha Baron Cohen, we all know and love him from films like Borat, Bruno, Talladega Nights, the Madagascar movies, and Sweeney Todd. He’ll soon be starring in a new film called The Dictator (not to be confused as a remake of the 1940 Charlie Chaplin film, The Great Dictator), which will be directed by Borat/Bruno director, Larry Charles. Cohen will also be portraying Freddie Mercury in an upcoming and unnamed Queen biopic.
As for participating in Django, Cohen is a special kind of actor. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if he’s in a movie, the role was most likely written for him, so seeing him in a Tarantino film leads me to think that his role will be not only extremely interesting, but hovering around genius. I trust both Cohen and Tarantino when it comes to successfully making great films, so there’s no reason that a collaboration between the two won’t be explosive.
Tarantino is known for his offbeat but almost always-successful casting, and with stars of this caliber, there’s no doubt in my mind that Django Unchained will be one of the best films of 2012.
Django Unchained: Kurt Russell to Replace Kevin Costner in Tarantino’s Latest
Back in July we talked about Django Unchained and how Kevin Costner was set to appear. And that was accurate until recently when he dropped out and was upgraded to replaced by Kurt Russell. Russell of course worked with QT before when he played ‘Stuntman Mike’ back in 2007…
So Russell will play ‘Ace’ the sadistic whipmaster on DiCaprio’s plantation. Sound good to me. While I have nothing against Costner, I am more of a Russell fan. I mean come on –The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Tombstone, Escape from New York...guy is a badass.
As far as the movie – Django Unchained – this is as stoked as I’ve been about a QT movie since walking out of Kill Bill and knowing I still had another 6 months till the 2nd part came out…
Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained’ – DiCaprio, Foxx, & Costner
Back in May I told you about the next Tarantino movie – Django Unchained. At that time it was believed that Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) was already locked in, and that it was rumored that star of the original movie Django – Franco Nero, would also be asked to take part. In addition, everyone just assumed that Sam Jackson would appear in his 6th Tarantino scripted movie.
Well as the production has rounded out, we’ve gotten some more names, the biggest of which was probably Leonardo DiCaprio. For the last month or so rumors have circled around DiCaprio being pegged to play the film’s villain – Calvin Candie…
“a charming but ruthless proprietor of Candyland, a despicable club and plantation in Mississippi where female slaves are exploited as sex objects and males are pitted against each other in “mandingo” style death matches. Candie is a slave’s worst nightmare and the freed slave Django must cross him in order to reclaim his wife.”
– Deadline
And while Leo’s name is attached to this all over the place, as far as I can figure, it isn’t actually official yet. If it does happen though, I think DiCaprio would be great. I’d love to see him in a villain role, and he has a real desire to work with the best directors in the industry with all the Scorsese movies in recent years, and Christopher Nolan’s Inception last summer. This guy is, in my opinion, one of the top actors in Hollywood today. As DeNiro, Pacino, Hackman, and Hoffman all ease into ‘Grandpa Roles’, the next generation of great actors is really starting to emerge, and Leo is at the forefront. However, like I said, he’s not confirmed yet to my knowledge.
Another big name QT was trying to wrangle in for the project was Mr. Blockbuster himself – Will Smith. This was the focus of our article in May, and now we’ve got an answer from the Fresh Prince: No.
So, once Will Smith (against the advice of everyone) turned down the lead in Quentin Tarantino’s newest movie, the search for ‘Django’ began anew. With Smith out, QT reportedly talked to Idris Elba, Terrence Howard, and Chris Tucker all before ultimately offering the role to Smith’s Ali co-star; Jamie Foxx, who has accepted.
Foxx is coming off of an extremely entertaining role in Horrible Bosses (which was awesome), where he played a character named ‘Motherf#*ker Jones’ and will now play a freed slave out for revenge. This should prove to be Foxx’s most talked about role of since Ray.
In addition to Jamie Foxx, it’s recently been announced that Kevin Costner will also join the cast. That means that Costner should be slated for a huge year in 2012 between this and his role as Pa Kent in Man of Steel. According to Deadline, Costner will play ‘Ace Woody’, the wicked plantation underboss who trains slaves to fight to the death.
Jamie Foxx’s Ray co-star Kerry Washington has also been tapped to appear as Django’s wife, and the motivation for his entire drive in the movie.
In addition, if you can believe the “always dependable” IMDb, Treat Williams (who we mentioned back in May) and Keith Carradine are both in the running to be included as well. Carradine is of course the younger brother of David Carradine, who was best known to QT fans as ‘Bill’. Now, while I’m pretty impartial towards Williams (even though I loved ‘Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead’), I really liked Carradine in his run on Dexter and I think he’d be a really under-rated addition to what’s shaping up to be one of the best casts of 2012…
So, what do you think? Excited or what?
DC Movie Updates: Green Lantern, The Dark Knight Rises, & Superman: Man of Steel
With so much news to talk about lately, we decided to split the updates up, so if you missed the Marvel Avengers edition you can click here. Still a lot of Marvel to cover, but I think it’s time to talk about some upcoming DC movies. Let’s get this started.
Green Lantern – Opens June 17, 2011
Starting off the Trinity of DC movies hitting us soon is Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, Mark Strong as Sinestro, Blake Lively as Carol Ferris, and Peter Sarsgaard as Hector Hammond.
Now I think it’s safe to say a lot of people were impressed when we saw the 5 minute WonderCon footage earlier this year. Over at Newsarama they have an interesting read on why they believe this footage rocked fandom.
Next we’ll take a look at the latest TV Spot which doesn’t show a whole lot of footage, but is still pretty effective, as well as being quite revealing regarding story and potential SPOILERS:
They show a whole lot of Parallax is what I’m saying. And now we move on to the picture portion of our program. No joke, get ready for posters, and lots of them.
From SuperHeroHype we get a look at Hal’s CG costume in great detail:
Continue reading DC Movie Updates: Green Lantern, The Dark Knight Rises, & Superman: Man of Steel
Kneel Before Zod! – Michael Shannon Cast as the New Superman Villain
It would appear Viggo Mortensen is out of the running to play Zod, because Michael Shannon of recent Boardwalk Empire fame, has landed the job to portray the baddest Kryptonian of all. According to a report from Yahoo!, Director Zack Snyder had this to say of Zod and Michael Shannon:
“Zod is not only one of Superman’s most formidable enemies, but one of the most significant because he has insights into Superman that others don’t,” Snyder said in a statement to Deadline, which was first to report the superhero casting news. “Michael is a powerful actor who can project both the intelligence and the malice of the character, making him perfect for the role.”
Michael Shannon, who is also an Academy Award nominee for his turn in Revolutionary Road, can definitely play a sinister role. His character Nelson Van Alden in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire is calm and collected, but prone to outbursts of rage from time to time. It would seem with Shannon’s addition to the cast of Superman: Man of Steel, they have an all star lineup going. Diane Lane, Kevin Costner, Amy Adams and Henry Cavill round out the rest of the cast of the Man of Steel. Now the only thing to wait on is the casting of all the minor roles for the movie, assuming they’ll cast Jimmy Olsen and Perry White. And who could forget Zod’s cuddly Kryptonian minions Ursa and Non. I vote for the WWE’s Kane to fill the role of Non if he is in the movie!
So what say you, the reader about this most recent Man of Steel casting selection? Yay or Nay? Unleash your fury in the comments section below!
Grizzly Bomb 