After a few whispers that Will Smith might be starring in Quentin Tarantino‘s upcoming western, Django Unchained, Academy Award–winning actor Jamie Foxx has been officially announced as the star instead.

Foxx will take on the role of Django (once played by Franco Nero in 1966’s Django), a former slave who, along with a German bounty hunter played by Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds antagonist, Christoph Waltz (The Green Hornet), sets off to get his revenge on the plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio) who enslaved him, and free the woman he loves from captivity.

Though not confirmed at the moment, reports are that Tarantino constant Samuel L. Jackson will play the role of Stephen, the right-hand man to DiCaprio’s Calvin Candie character, and Kerry Washington (Fantastic Four, The Last King of Scotland) has met with the director about playing the role of Broomhilda, the slave-girl Django is going back to the plantation to free. Nero himself is also said to be playing a role.

Foxx is best known for his Oscar-winning performance in 2004’s Ray (which also starred Washington), and titles such as Collateral, Law Abiding Citizens, The Kingdom, and the upcoming comedy, Horrible Bosses.

[Source: Variety]