Will Smith the frontrunner for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained; Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson in talks

Of all the pairings I never expected to see, the one with the least traction would've been Quentin Tarantino and Will Smith. Smith is such a mainstream actor, while Tarantino has a permanent home outside the box. If the two ever did team up, the results could be explosive. So imagine the shock when it was revealed by multiple sources that Smith was the frontrunner for Django Unchained, Tarantino's much hyped southern set spaghetti Western.

As far as I can tell, THR was the first to break the news, stating that Tarantino is now in the process of shopping the film to studios for global distribution. The Weinsteins will be handling the domestic release. Insiders say Smith is Tarantino's first choice, but no offer has been made as of yet. Variety chimed in later on to say that Smith is seeking edgier roles than the ones that have turned him into the biggest movie star on the planet, and would likely forgo his usual hefty salary to work with Tarantino.  

If Smith does sign, he'll be playing Django, a freed slave in the south who teams up with a German bounty hunter to get revenge on  Monsieur Calvin Candie, the sadistic slavemaster holding his wife.  Christoph Waltz had been previously confirmed for the bounty hunter role, but had denied them recently. Current reports just have him as being in talks, but let's be honest, that part was made with Waltz in mind and he'll jump at it. 

Tarantino favorite Samuel L. Jackson is also in talks for the crucial supporting role as Stephen, the manipulative house slave to the evil Candie. Sounds like the type of showy role that Quentin creates just for Jackson to knock out of the park. Tarantino also reached out to Brad Pitt for a supporting role, but he turned it down. In a lot of ways, Tarantino's pursuit of Smith mirrors that of Pitt for Inglourious Basterds.

Even though there have been more than a dozen versions of Django done over the years, this is already shaping up to be the most unique yet. For some reason I just can't picture it ever happening. Idris Elba? Yes. Michael Jai White? Definitely. They're two actors I've seen who have the physicality and griminess to really nail it. Smith doesn't do it for me, but then he's never worked with Tarantino before. Maybe working with an unchained filmmaker like Tarantino will  bring something new out of him.