Deadline.com is reporting that Leonardo DiCaprio is circling Quentin Tarantino's DJANGO UNCHAINED. He would play the evil plantation owner Calvin Candie. The story follows a freed slave named Django, who with training from German bounty hunter Dr. Schultze, sets out to free his wife from Candie's clutches. Tarantino wants Will Smith for the lead, but his alternatives are Idris Elba, Jamie Foxx and Chris Tucker. He has lined up INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS' Oscar winner Christoph Waltz for the bounty hunter part and Samuel L. Jackson for the house slave Stephen.

Stacey Sher and Pilar Savone are the producers. The Weinstein Company is the studio with Sony Pictures distributing internationally.