Ouch. Yep, this one kinda hurts but the latest news on the web regarding Quentin Tarantino’s adaptation of Django Unchained is that star Kevin Costner has just discovered “Scheduling Conflicts”.
Source: Latino Review
One of the writers working on Variety, Justin Kroll Tweeted that Kevin Costner, who was being eyed for the role of Ace Woody has decided to pass on it. The Tweet reads:
“And in another interesting piece of casting news, Kevin Costner has had to pass on DJANGO UNCHAINED due to scheduling conflicts.”
The on paper reason is “scheduling conflicts,” but it could also be in part that the role doesn’t exactly scream “Kevin Costner.” It’s not like he limits himself to purely family friendly movies, but to be described as “a sadistic trainer of male fighting slaves who entertain the white patrons of Candyland as well as the female slaves who are forced to be prostitutes” might be a little much. Leave the super controversial stuff to Samuel L. Jackson. He loves it.
Yea. Ouch. I hate investing myself to seeing someone in a specific role like I did with Kevin Costner in this movie. I REALLY liked the idea of seeing both Leonardo DiCaprio and Kevin Costner as slave owners in as sadistic a way as possible. Both are fantastic actors who have delivered acclaimed performances for years and the idea of them providing that same commitment to a sure-fire controversial Quentin Tarantino movie had me salivating on the inside. I’m a sick guy.
With this dream currently shattered my mind wanders to thoughts of who would be an appropriate replacement for the role. Immediately I think of Woody Harrelson, but that almost seems too easy a choice but a really fitting one. Woody has the chops, look, and presence to take on the role of an intimidating sadistic man. Too easy.
The list of replacements I’d love to see in the role is a little broad as I think a few people could bring something different to the table: Johnny Depp, Steve Carrell, James Franco, and my absolute top choice to provice as close to a performance as I would have liked to see from Kevin Costner is George Clooney.
I’d like to see Steve Carrel play a serious, or really any non-Michael Scott character, and I suppose Tarantino would be the guy to do it, as he cast Mike Meyers and Simon Pegg in Inglourious Basterds, though Pegg couldn’t take the role and it went to Michael Fassbender