A Spanish poster for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.

The film is set for a Christmas 2012 stateside release. 

via JoBlo

Quentin Tarantino on David Fincher and the difference between a director and a writer/director.

Quentin Tarantino’s Official Top Eleven of 2011

1. Midnight In Paris
2. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
3. Moneyball
4. The Skin I Live In
5. X-Men: First Class
6. Young Adult
7. Attack The Block
8. Red State
9. Warrior
10. The Artist / Our Idiot Brother (tie)
11. The Three Musketeers

Others considered in no particular order

50/50
Beginners
Hugo
The Iron Lady
Carnage
Green Hornet
Green Lantern
Captain America
The Descendants
My Week With Marilyn
Fast Five
Tree Of Life
The Hangover Part II
Mission Impossible 4
The Beaver
Contagion
The Sitter
War Horse

Nice Try Award

Drive
Hannah
Drive Angry
Real Steel

Best Director

Pedro Almodovar
Bennett Miller
Woody Allen
Jason Reitman
Michel Hazanavicius

Best Original Screenplay

Midnight In Paris
Young Adult
Red State
Attack The Block
Our Idiot Brother
Beginners

Best Adapted Screenplay

Moneyball
The Skin I live In
Carnage
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
Hugo
X-Men: First Class

Worst Films

Sucker Punch
Potiche (Trophy Wife)
Miral
Insidious
Rampart
Straw Dogs
Paranormal Activity 3
Meek’s Cutoff

Discuss!

Casting news continues to trickle in on Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, but the biggest news was the conformation that Robert Richardson would serve as the film’s director of photography. 

Richardson and Tarantino previously collaborated on Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds (Richardson received an Academy Award nomination for his work on that film). 

Meet the cast of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (so far…) 

Apparently, there’s some meaty roles still left to be cast or announced and rumors suggest that Michael K. Williams (“The Wired”, “Broadwalk Empire”) will appear in the film. 

Django Unchained is set to start production in a month or two for a Christmas Day 2012 release. 

News & Notes From The Web:

• Showbiz 411 is reporting that Jamie Foxx is now the front runner to star as the titular character in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.
  

• Ben Affleck is going to make the cast of his next film, Argo go through a rather unusual rehearsal process. Via Vulture

• The delightful Ellie Kemper is joining cast of 21 Jump Street with Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube and Dave Franco. [Via HuffPo]

• Ed Harris and “Party Of Five” star Matthew Fox are going to the fight the zombies of World War Z [Via Deadline]

(Editor’s note: this article is not about the 2009 Roland Emmerich film of the same name)

Despite the negative connotations surrounding 2012, it’s actually shaping up to be a great year for film. It’s not to say that 2011 has been a bad or awful year for film (there’s still seven months left to turn the tide), but it’s fun to look ahead. In addition, the last two weeks have been full of interesting developments. Instead of running down an entire year of films that may are still in development, let’s look at four films that should be hitting theaters next year.

Untitled Terrence Malick Project

It’s hard to believe that we’re only a few weeks away from the release of a new Terrence Malick film and there’s another film already in the can. To imagine Malick going from twenty years in between films to two years in between projects. The latest effort from Malick currently doesn’t have a title and perhaps, it shouldn’t. While “a powerful and moving love story” may have the ability to achieve mainstream success, an Untitled Terrence Malick Porject warns the normies that this film may not be for them and there’s a good chance that there won’t be any act breaks.

The Master

Thanks to the new patron saint of cinema, Megan Ellison, The Master was rescued from the depths of development hell and is quickly heading towards a June 2011 production start. While the project’s delays and false starts may have lost the ever so busy Jeremy Renner, it has gained Joaquin Phoenix in the down time. From what I remember of the draft that leaked early in 2010, The Master was obviously bold and ambitions and faintly reminded me of the work of John Steinbeck or at least the scope of it. Paul Thomas Anderson could have directed Alvin & the Chipmunks 3 and it would’ve been on the top of the must see list. The biggest issue that I have with the struggle to bring The Master to the screen is how easy it seems for Wes Anderson to secure financing for his films every single time while Paul Thomas Anderson can’t find anything. Obviously, the subject matters of The Master (Scientology) and There Will Be Blood (Oil, Religion) aren’t that commercial, but I have to assume Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson’s films make the same amount of money and more often than not, Paul Thomas Anderson’s films garner more Oscar nominations.

Untitled Osama bin Laden Project

Another Megan Ellison production! Look, it’s Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, the director and writer, respectively of The Hurt Locker are uniting again for a film about the capture and death of Osama bin Laden. It’ll probably be a highly realistic action drama with an large ensemble cast of burly dudes. Sign me up!

Django Unchained

It feels as if we’ve reached our saturation point already with Quentin Tarantino’s next film, but that’s what happened with Inglourious Basterds. The script leaked early and the rabid on line community spent weeks picking their dream cast until Brad Pitt and the cast came together. With this film, we’re in the midst of a waiting game: will Will Smith agree to play Django or will he pass? From what I’ve read of the screenplay, it seems like a typical Will Smith part, but at the same time, it’s something completely different for him. 2012 is going to the return of Will Smith and he could just stick to appearing in the cash grab, Men In Black 3 or star in both films and quickly restore any credibility lost from MIB3. Since it’s a Tarantino film, it’ll be very chatty and rather violent, but it may not have the ability to cross over the way that Basterds did.

2012 is just limited to these four films. A lot more can happen between now and 2012. Maybe the Coens get something going. Maybe Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond The Pines comes together and gets a 2012 release or Giorgos Lanthimos’ (Dogtooth) new film gets a stateside release. And of course, there will be about 45 movies starring Jeremy Renner

“Django” by Luis Bacalov with English vocals by Rocky Roberts

Obviously, it’s rather too early to worry about the technical aspects of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. As Tarantino recently stated in rather cantankerous interview with NY Mag’s Vulture, there are no actors connected to the project and Tarantino doesn’t know when he’ll start production. However, I can’t help but wonder about the technical aspects of Django Unchained and I’ve narrowed them down to two bulletin points. 

1. The Score. Without a doubt, Django Unchained will be the ultimate tribute to the western genre (not only the spaghetti) and it will require an epic score. Internet lore suggests that Ennio Morricone, the superstar composer of western classics like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly was going to score Tarantino’s most recent film, Inglourious Basterds, but scheduling problems prevented the maestro from providing an original score. Before he even starts to meet with actors, Tarantino should secure Morricone and lock the maestro in position. A film with this potential scope and scale requires an epic score and who better than Morricone? The soundtracks for Basterds and Kill Bill played like Morricone mixtapes, so why not create some new music instead of reusing old pieces? Also, I feel that Tarantino needs to incorporate the original Django theme song into the film.
2. Cinematography! Tarantino’s DP du jour, Robert Richardson is apparently booked on World War Z and may not be able to do the project with a fall start in mind. Perhaps, it’ll be Roger Deakins or Robert Elswit. Who knows? It just needs to be someone who understands scope and the power of close ups.

Get Off My Lawn!

“In the latest chapter of Quentin Tarantino’s lifelong effort to make movies about other movies or books, but NEVER, EVER about life as he’s lived it, thought it, felt it or dreamed it ALL BY HIMSELF & based on his own personal ‘walk the earth’ journey he’s decided to direct a remake or re-imagine or re-stylize or amplify upon a 1966 ultra-violent Franco Nero spaghetti western called Django, which he’ll be re-titling Django Unchained. Brilliant. Crawling even further up his own ass.”

- Jeffrey Wells