John Sayles Is Teaming Up With Franco Nero For 'Django Lives!'

You may recall the confusion surrounding two separate 'Django' projects that seemed to be developing at the same time a few years ago. One was obviously Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, which featured a cameo by the legendary Franco Nero, the actor who made the character famous in Sergio Corbucci's 1966 Western. And then there was another project that would have been a traditional Django sequel, with Nero directing and acting in the title role. To the best of my knowledge that film never actually happened (Someone can correct me if I'm wrong), but if that left the door open to this latest news then the wait will have been worth it. 

According to Showbiz411, the great John Sayles will write and direct Django Lives! which will star Nero as the vigilante Union soldier once more. Sayles is the brilliant filmmaker behind Matewan, Passion Fish, Lone Star, his most recent film the criminally under-seen Go for Sisters (which I interviewed him for), and many more. He usually uses his films to explore complicated social issues, in particular those involving race relations, and it sounds like he'll do the same with Django Lives! The story will be set 50 years after the original film and finds Django working on the set of D.W. Griffith's controversial The Birth of a Nation. The Django films were rooted in the exploitation genre, and this premise would seem to embrace that while exploring the racial components more fully. This could be amazing. 

So let's hope we hear more about this soon, and maybe if we're lucky Tarantino will get involved to give the film a push. Lord knows Sayles has always had trouble finding financing for his pet projects, such as his Native American drama To Save the Man which he's been trying to get made for years. Maybe if Django Lives! is a hit he can use that as a platform to bankroll anything else he wants to do.