First photos emerge of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained

By Max Lalanne, Film Critic

Today saw The Weinstein Co. release the first images from their upcoming December 25 release Django Unchained.

The images show Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz getting their Western swagger on in full costume and apparent badass attitude, as well as a look at a bearded, cigarette-chomping, hammer-wielding Leonardo DiCaprio.

Di Caprio as plantation owner Calvin Caddie

In the epic slave drama, Foxx plays Django, a slave who turns avenging gunslinger after he meets a German bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz (Waltz). After buying Django his freedom – to initially make him a deputy bounty hunter –  King trains him and helps track down and rescue his beloved wife (Kerry Washington) who’s been sold to cruel plantation owner Calvin Caddie (DiCaprio).

If that doesn’t sound like a winning film, you also have Samuel L. Jackson, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Justified‘s Walton Goggins rounding up a stellar cast – plus the fact that that just in case you somehow didn’t know, Django Unchained is written and directed by none other that Quentin Tarantino. Sounds very promising.

Badass swagger... Waltz and Foxx

Tarantino’s last film, 2009′s Inglourious Basterds, won the famed filmmaker Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. It also saw the films star, Christoph Waltz, walk away with an Oscar for  Best Supporting Actor.

Django Unchained’s early Oscar chances? I would tentatively put my money on pretty much all the noms Inglourious Basterds received three years ago.