Django Unchained

Django Unchained ( JANG-goh) is a 2012 American revisionist Western film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Produced by Tarantino's A Band Apart and Columbia Pictures, it stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson with Walton Goggins, Dennis Christopher, James Remar, Michael Parks, and Don Johnson in supporting roles. The film, set in the Antebellum South and Old West follows the story of an enslaved man who trains under a German bounty hunter with the ultimate goal of reuniting with his wife. It is a highly stylized, revisionist tribute to spaghetti Westerns, with its title referring particularly to the 1966 Italian film Django by Sergio Corbucci. Development of Django Unchained began in 2007, when Tarantino was writing a book on Corbucci. By April 2011, Tarantino sent his final draft of the script to The Weinstein Company (TWC). Casting began in the summer of 2011, with Michael K. Williams and Will Smith being considered for the role of the title character before Foxx was cast. Principal photography took place from November 2011 to March 2012 in California, Wyoming, and Louisiana. The film premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on December 11, 2012, and was theatrically released by The Weinstein Company on December 25, in the United States, with Sony Pictures Releasing International handling international distribution. It was a commercial success, grossing $449.8 million worldwide against a $100 million budget, becoming Tarantino's highest-grossing film to date, as well as the highest-grossing Western film of all time. Django Unchained received widespread acclaim from critics, who praised the performances—especially those of Waltz and DiCaprio—and Tarantino's direction and screenplay, though the film's extensive graphic violence and frequent use of racial slurs were source of controversy. It was named one of the top ten films of the year by the American Film Institute and by the National Board of Review, and received numerous accolades, gathering five nominations at the 85th Academy Awards—including for Best Picture—winning for Best Supporting Actor (Waltz) and Best Original Screenplay (Tarantino). It also received five nominations with two wins at both the 70th Golden Globe Awards and the 66th British Academy Film Awards.