As you might expect with any Quentin Tarantino project, the rumors are flying pretty furiously. We just learned over the weekend that the spaghetti Western we've been hearing about for weeks will be titled Django Unchained, with Tarantino just having wrapped up the script last week. What we know, or think we know, is that it will star Christoph Waltz, possibly Franco Nero, and take place in the south. Here's a version of what we think the story will entail...
"The title character Django is a freed slave, who under the tutelage of a German bounty hunter (Christophe Waltz) becomes a badass bounty hunter himself and after assisting Waltz on taking down some bad guys for profit, is in turn assisted by Waltz in tracking down his slave wife and liberating her from an evil plantation owner. And that doesn't even half begin to cover it! This film deals with racism as I've rarely seen it handled in a Hollywood film. While it's 100 percent pure popcorn and revenge flick, it is pure genius in the way it takes on the evil slave owning south. Think of what he did with the Nazis in Inglourious and you'll get a sense of what he's doing with slave owners and slave overseers in this one."
While honoring the career of Sidney Poitier at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Tarantino was cornered by Vulture who had a chance to ask him a few questions about the film, which he either didn't want to answer or everybody on the internet is a misinformed goon....
What did you do after handing in the final draft of Django Unchained?
When I send out the script, I always have a little party at my house. I send it out to Harvey Weinstein and other people, and then my friends just show up all day long and just get their copy of it and drink Champagne and we celebrate.
Is it a daylong party?
Yeah, it wrapped up around one in the morning.
What time did it start?
Around 3 p.m. We started having it around three o'clock.
How did you know when it was finished?
After the third draft I knew it was finished. [Laughs.]
Fair enough. What Westerns inspired you?
Every Western, no Western. It's its own thing.
Really? Like how so?
I can't tell you.
Did it take much convincing to get Christoph Waltz in it?
I didn't say he was in it.
It has been reported that he's starring in it.
Nobody is in it; I just wrote it Tuesday. I wrote it Tuesday. I'm not even directing it yet! I just wrote a script Tuesday, all right? It's just a script. A piece of paper, a lot of pieces of paper. 366, to be exact.
It has also been reported it's going to start filming soon. Is that a fallacy, too?
I have no idea when it is going to start filming. I'm going to say it one more time: I stopped writing it Tuesday.
I understand. I'm just trying to get my facts straight here.
Well, that's the fact: I finished it Tuesday. I finished Tuesday.
Congratulations on that. So there was like a childlike scrawl on the first page that leaked. Can you tell me a little about that?
You're taking all the cool elements of it and having me put it under a microscope and dissect it. The childlike scrawl is my handwriting. [Laughs.] Why is it that way? Because that's how I write.
Not having read the script myself(I'm still not convinced anyone in the media has), I can't say who I think would be perfect for the film. If the plot described above is the real deal, then Waltz seems like a natural. What is for certain is that the rumors will keep flying, and that we won't know anything for certain until Tarantino reveals it himself.
