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Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained’ close to landing Jamie Foxx as lead

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Has Quentin Tarantino found his Django? Jamie Foxx is in talks for the slave-turned-free man lead role in ‘Django Unchained,’ a civil rights revenge tale that the Weinstein Co. is co-producing with Sony Pictures, people close to the production who were not authorized to speak on the record said Wednesday. No deal has yet been struck but they say he is the man for the job.

The role is sure to be a controversial one. So much so that Will Smith, who was first offered the part, passed. In similar fashion to Tarantino’s last film, ‘Inglourious Basterds,’ the writer-director plays with history, this time putting a slave partnered with a German bounty hunter on a quest to retrieve the slave’s wife, who has been taken from him.

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Tarantino is assembling an impressive cast, one that is likely to include Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson. The script has been making the rounds through Hollywood over the last few months and is filled with Tarantino’s trademark wordplay and big, over-the-top set pieces. How Tarantino works with Foxx, who can next be seen in New Line’s comedy ‘Horrible Bosses’ on July 8, is a wait-and-see proposition. The actor won an Oscar in 2005 for his portrayal of musician Ray Charles in ‘Ray.’

The Weinstein Co. has set a Christmas 2012 release for ‘Django Unchained.’

-- Nicole Sperling

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