Well, wow. With the recent bits and bobs of casting finding Quentin Tarantino flipping through his TV Guide to cast actors from shows he watches on Nick At Nite to round out "Django Unchained," it seems he had one major piece of casting news up his sleeve.
Variety reports that Sacha Baron Cohen, aka Bruno aka Borat aka Ali G, is signing on the dotted line to play Scotty Harmony in the upcoming spaghetti western/vengeance flick. Undoubtedly, the role has been retooled a bit. In the script we read that leaked earlier in the year, Scotty is an overweight 24-year-old whose father buys him Broomhilda to help his self-confidence. Neither 24 nor overweight, the lanky Cohen will likely bring his own take on it, but the essence is the same. Broomhilda becomes his companion (of sorts) until he comes up against Candie in a card game. Yeah, it's a small part but an important one, hence the big name in the role.
It's truly a surprising move, and might seem surprising to those who have seen Cohen largely bring his own characters to the big screen. But when it comes to working with an auteur — as he recently did in "Hugo" with Martin Scorsese — Cohen is wisely willing to take on that experience.
The credit scroll will now look something like this (in addition to Cohen): Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington, Dennis Christopher, Kurt Russell, Laura Cayouette, Don Johnson, M.C. Gainey, Tom Savini, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anthony LaPaglia, RZA, Misty Upham, Tom Wopat, James Remar, James Russo, Todd Allen and Rex Linn.
A lot of big names, "Hey it's that guy" types and B-movie sorts that we're beginning to be slightly worried this might just turn into one long endless cameo-filled movie, but we'll see. 'Django' gets unchained on December 25, 2012. And oh yeah, happy November 11th.