Kevin Costner to Train Slaves in 'Django Unchained'

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Kevin Costner is joining the all-star cast of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, the filmmaker's spaghetti Western about a slave in the Old South who teams with a German bounty hunter to search for his wife.

Costner joins a cast that already such bold-faced names as Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson, and Christoph Waltz.

Costner’s role is a departure from his good-guy roles and a cannonballing into the part of a vile and sadistic trainer of slaves who are forced to fight in death matches for a plantation owner (DiCaprio, also departing from his usual).

Foxx is Django, a man in search of his wife while Waltz is the German who helps him on his quest. Jackson is a head slave who works for DiCaprio and relishes his status over other slaves.

Django ist the second high-profile gig snagged by Costner, once of the biggest studio stars. He recently nabbed the part of Superman’s Earth-bound father, Pa Kent, in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel movie.

Costner is repped by WME.