Quentin Tarantino’s love for casting stars actors whose careers have turned a little lukewarm shows no sign of abating: he’s just hired Don Johnson to play a role in Django Unchained.
Johnson will appear as Spencer Bennett, a wealthy plantation owner who oversees a group of “ponies”, a rather odious slang term for attractive black prostitutes. It is, therefore, a very villainous role, and according to Deadline, it took several weeks of persuasion for Tarantino to convince Johnson to take it. But even with the darker aspects, we’re a little surprised Johnson took much persuading, since his career has recently been in straight-to-video fodder, indie movies and some truly dreadful wide releases, including When in Rome and Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star. The dip was big enough that even Machete seemed like an improvement.
In Django, the titular freed slave hero (Jamie Foxx) and bounty hunter partner Schultz (Christoph Waltz) encounter Bennett when they’re tracking another man, and he turns the tables on them.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L Jackson, Kurt Russell, Gerald McRaney and MC Gainey are already all aboard for the film, which QT will kick off shooting next month.