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Comic Con 2012: Django Unchained

Let’s get this out of the way now, Saturday at Comic Con was an exhausting time for anyone who wanted to get into Hall H.  This is of course the biggest hall for panels at the San Diego Convention Center and Saturday proved to be the day that anyone who wanted to get in would have needed to arrive at least 4-5 hours early, as I did.  It paid off however, as the first panel of the day was for Quentin Tarantino’s new movie, Django Unchained (The ‘D’ is silent).  I previously wrote a post about this upcoming film already, which can be found HERE, but I was thrilled to be able to see the cast and writer/director Quentin Tarantino, along with whatever footage they brought with them.  Continue on to learn a bit more about ‘Django‘s presence at Comic Con.

For those unaware, The film is a western (of sorts) that stars Academy Award winners Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz as a former slave and a German bounty hunter, who have teamed up to take down an evil plantation owner played by Leonardo DiCaprio.  The film is due to arrive in theaters this Christmas, but audiences were given the chance to have a special peak at the film.  Present at the panel was Tarantino, Foxx, and Waltz (with a full beard), along with co-stars Don Johnson, Walton Goggins, and Kerry Washington.  Each of the participants were given the chance to go over various pieces of information about their involvement in the film.

There were a number of highlights.  True to form, Tarantino was basically schooling the audience, by presenting a small amount of his knowledge regarding the western genre and the various influences involved with the creation of Django Unchained.  It should be noted that not just westerns, but various other genres and story-types factor into what type of film ‘Django‘ is, including the fairy tale model, swashbucklers, and of course the classic revenge story.  It was also no surprise that Tarantino has this idea for a film for about 13 years.  He described this and Kill Bill as his two biggest films, regarding the scope and epic nature of the story.

Other highlights on the cast side of things included what Jaime Foxx had to say about preparing for the role.  He spoke about how Tarantino questioned whether he could strip away his celebrity and really dig into the role of an ex-slave.  Foxx stated that he channeled a lot of his own experiences in growing up, in order to really get into the mind of this sort of character.  The very bearded Christoph Waltz also got a chance to speak about his role as a dentist/bounty hunter and seemed very pleased to be back on another project with Tarantino.  Don Johnson was also having a lot of fun on stage, asking to be referred to as “Big Daddy”, as he is in the film.  And lastly, Kerry Washington spoke how she was required to speak German in the film and had a number of coaches, as well as help from Waltz.  One more thing of note, Washington’s character is named Broomhilda von Shaft and, at least in Tarantino’s mind, she is actually the great, great grandmother of the man who will eventually be John Shaft.  Can you dig it?

The footage that was shown as an 8-minute long sizzle reel of footage, which is where the footage in the trailer stems from.  We were told that this was only footage from the first half of the film, as they still had not even finished filming, but it worked well enough for providing a solid trailer.  Now having watched the footage, I can easily say that I am even more excited to see Django Unchained, as it has everything I would hope for in a spaghetti western directed by Quentin Tarantino.  It is not just the dialogue, but the flow of the scenes presented, which made this film look like another very exciting one, which also oozes a certain level of cool in regards to how everyone acts in a world that is both set in a specific period and one that has been crafted by Tarantino.  Add to that some seemingly quite lively performances from the various members of the cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio, and this is a movie I would love to see more of now.

Along with the panel, Django Unchained has a nice presence in another part of Comic Con as well.  There is a whole area devoted to the film, across from Petco Park, which features a live DJ, posters available for anyone, and a couple TVs setup with Red Dead Redemption available for play.  There are also several people dressed up as cowboys, who will give special coins to anyone that says the magic words, “The D is Silent.”  These coins can be redeemed for exclusive Comic Con T-Shirts.  It is just a lot of fun stuff like this that makes it a neat experience.

Django Unchained Arrives in Theaters this Christmas

Aaron is a writer/reviewer for WhySoBlu.com.  Follow him on Twitter @AaronsPS3.
He also co-hosts a podcast, Out Now with Aaron and Abe, available via iTunes or at HHWLOD.com.