It was announced nearly two months ago that Kevin Costner was in talks to play Ace Woody in Quentin Tarantino’s next film, Django Unchained. Now, Variety’s Justin Kroll, via a tweet, told us that Costner has passed on the project, saying:
“And in another interesting piece of casting news, Kevin Costner has had to pass on DJANGO UNCHAINED due to scheduling conflicts.”
It’s unfortuante to see Costner pass on the project, which would have been a lot darker than most of his roles. Ace Woody is Calvin Candie’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) slave trainer, the one who teaches Candie’s slaves to fight to the death.
Having read the script, it wouldn’t be a stretch to see a friend of Tarantino’s and frequent collaberator Michael Madsen in the role of Ace Woody. Hopefully the director will consider him for the role.
Whether he does or not, we can expect more casting soon, as the project is scheduled to begin shooting in January.
Django Unchained stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson and Gerald McRaney and is set to be released on December 25th, 2012.
Quentin Tarantino
