They both earned their Academy Award wins. Congratulations!

Here’s the complete list of all the Academy Award Nominations Django Unchained Received:

• Best Picture
• Best Supporting Actor, Christoph Waltz
• Best Original Screenplay
• Best Cinematography
• Best Sound Editing

Here is the full list of 2013 Academy Award Nominees.

Please post your thoughts about the nominations. Did the Academy get it right this year? Who will win? Who deserves to win? Are you shocked that Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t receive a nomination as many critics expected he would?

This is a variant cover of the Django Unchained Issue #2 comic done by artist Mark Chiarello. Chiarello is best known for his Terminal City covers. Vertigo, who is publishing the comic, claims that Django Unchained Issue #2 will be released on February 13th, 2013. I’ve seen this release date pushed back at least three times, though, so I’ll believe it when I see it.

In other Django Unchained comic news:

• I have created a new Django Unchained Comic Page which consolidates all information about the comic, including release dates, covers, and preview scans, into one convenient place.
• Django Unchained Issue #1 is getting a second printing! Its first run sold out, so a second printing will be issued on February 6th. Amazon is still selling paper copies and Kindle copies of Issue #1.
• There will eventually be a hardcover book featuring all Django Unchained issues. This will be released on September 3rd, 2013. Amazon is already has a product page up for it and is now taking pre-orders.

Yes, Big Daddy’s costume was indeed inspired by Miami Vice.

Vanity Fair recently published an extremely interesting article about Django Unchained costume designer Sharen Davis. The article includes a slideshow full of Django Unchained costume sketches and inspirations. I highly recommend checking it out.

I’d also like to note that I’ve added a new Behind the Scenes section to the website. This is where I’ll be posting behind the scenes and other production-related pictures from Django Unchained. I included the rest of Sharen Davis’ sketches on this page.

You can now pre-order the Django Unchained Blu-ray on Amazon. Amazon is charging $27.99 and includes Free Super Saver Shipping. That is $12 less than MSRP of $39.99. No release date for the Blu-ray has been announced, nor does Amazon list what special features are included on the Blu-ray.

The Django Unchained DVD is also available for pre-order. Amazon is selling it for $19.99 with eligiblity for Free Super Saver Shipping. Again, no release date or special features on this have been announced for the DVD.

The above image is what Amazon is displaying for the Blu-ray and DVD covers, but this will likely be changed as more information about the Blu-ray is released in later weeks.

Weekend Box Office Figures:  Django Unchained came in at #2 this weekend with $20 million. Texas Chainsaw 3D was #1 with $21 million, and The Hobbit #3 with $17.5 million.

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Awards News:  The Producers Guild of America nominated Django Unchained’s producers for its Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures award.

The Art Directors Guild nominated Django Unchained production designer J. Michael Riva for a Nominees for Excellence in Production Design for a Feature Film in 2012 award.

BTW, Academy Award nominations will be announced on January 10th (Thursday).

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Vulture has two more great articles up about Django Unchained:

What Was Cut From Django Unchained

Why Django Unchained’s Slavery Tale Had to Be a Spaghetti Western

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Entertainment Weekly has a great article up about Django Unchained’s costume designer Sharen Davis.

“Broomhilda’s clothes aren’t her own,” the actress told EW. “Even in talking it through with [Sharen], when we were talking about the Broomhilda stuff, it was always ‘What would he put her in?’ ’What would the woman of the house dress her in? Oh, she’d dress her like a doll.’”

“Quentin was very hands-on,” Davis says of working with Tarantino. “I would do these sketches, but I would also have freeze-frames from the spaghetti Westerns he had me watch to go along with the illustrations so I could show him exactly where the ideas came from. Because this is a Tarantino movie, the dresses are all a little above reality.”

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Louis Farrakhan claims that Django Unchained is “preparation for a race war.”

To me, the movie had a purpose,” he said. “If a black man came out of that movie thinking like Djngo and white people came out of that movie seeing the slaughter of white people and they are armed to the teeth, it’s preparation for a race war.”

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Quentin Tarantino gave a 60-second interview with BET about his use of the word “nigger”:

Thanks, Grahmhatch , for spotting this!

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Basketball player JaVale McGee posted the above picture of his shoes on Instagram.

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Dennis Christopher, who plays Leonide Moguy in the film, did an interview about how he ended up in Django Unchained.

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Apparently The Mutter Museum (a museum specializing in medical history) made a special instructional video just for Quentin Tarantino and Leonardo DiCaprio about how to saw a human skulls using mid-19th century medical equipment. Click the link to watch them.

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Samuel L. Jackson recently made headlines by trying to goad a reporter into saying the word “nigger” instead of “the N-word.” Video and transcript are here.

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Quentin Tarantino revealed why he did not give the role of Django to Idris Elba, who auditioned for it.

“Yeah, Idris is British and this is an American story. I think a problem with a lot of movies that deal with this issue is they cast British actors to play the Southerners and it goes a long way to distancing the movie. They put on their gargoyle masks and they do their phoney accents and you are not telling an American story any more. They are just making hay of it, whether it be James Mason in Mandingo or Michael Caine in Hurry Sundown, they get British actors to do this.”

Today’s your last day to get a free $2 Amazon MP3 credit when you purchase tickets through Fandango. If you plan on seeing Django Unchained soon, whether for the first, second, or third time, then don’t miss out on this deal!

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Weekend box office figures: Django Unchained took #2 at the box office with weekend with $9.6 million. The Hobbit came in at #1 with $10.7 million, and Les Miserables #3 at $9.4 million.

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Vulture has an excellent primer to movie and TV references in Django Unchained. A very highly-recommended read if you’ve already seen the film (or just want to know what to look for before see it). Spoilers included, obviously.

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Video Round-up (embedding is either not allowed or broken, so you have to click through, sorry):

Entertainment Weekly has a video of the Django Unchained cast talking about their experiences with working with Quentin Tarantino.

Yahoo! has a video with Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson discussing Leonardo’s DiCaprio’s performance in the film. Spoilers included.

Hitfix interviewed Walton Goggins.

Perez Hilton interviewed with Quentin Tarantino and Christoph Waltz.

Huffington Post interviewed Jamie Foxx.

Charlie Rose interviewed Quentin Tarantino.

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NPR has two good articles up about Django Unchained:

Is ‘Django Unchained’ The ‘Blackest Film Ever?’

Quentin Tarantino Interview:  Tarantino On ‘Django,’ Violence And Catharsis

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The Boston Globe published a great interview with Quentin Tarantino about what films influenced him to make Django Unchained. Here he talks about how The Legend of Nigger Charley majorly influenced his film:

It’s a cheap, even vaguely tawdry movie. But it’s satisfying! It actually is empowering when you see [star] Fred Williamson kill the overseers and lead a group of slaves, and they take over this town and fight these bad guys. It’s empowering,” Tarantino says. “You wish it were a little better. But it really scratches the itch. And so I knew I could expand on that. I could do a better version of that as a mock epic.

You can watch the movie for free on Youtube.

Also, a “fuck you” to the Boston Globe for calling it the “The Legend of [Black] Charley.” Call it by its proper name!

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The New Yorker published some film commentary about Django Unchained. Spoilers included.

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The International Rome Film Festival will be giving Quentin Tarantino a special lifetime achievement award. Ennio Morricone will presenting the award.

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Thanks all for making 2012 so special! Hope you have a wonderful 2013!

The official Django Unchained Poster shown above is now on sale for only $4.99! Supplies are limited, though, so this deal won’t last long.

Don’t forget to post your thoughts about Django Unchained in our Open Thread!

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Django Unchained took in $15 million on Christmas Day, putting it at #2 behind Les Miserables ($18.2 million). The Hobbit came in at #3 with $11.3 million. This makes Django Unchained the fifth highest-grossing Christmas release.

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Quentin Tarantino has a streaming, track-by-track commentary of the Django Unchained soundtrack on the official website available through January 2nd. Worth listening to if you have the time.

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Slate has an excellent commentary comparing Django Unchained to blaxploitation westerns from the 70s like The Legend of Nigger Charley trilogy (which is available for free on Youtube). I added a few new movies to my “To Watch” list after reading this one.

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Slate also has an excellent article about the history of Mandingo fighting.

Did the U.S. have anything like this form of gladiatorial combat?

No. While slaves could be called upon to perform for their owners with other forms of entertainment, such as singing and dancing, no slavery historian we spoke with had ever come across anything that closely resembled this human version of cock fighting. As David Blight, the director of Yale’s center for the study of slavery, told me: One reason slave owners wouldn’t have pitted their slaves against each other in such a way is strictly economic. Slavery was built upon money, and the fortune to be made for owners was in buying, selling, and working them, not in sending them out to fight at the risk of death.

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The Root has a great interview with Quentin Tarantino about race issues and the use of the word “nigger” in the film. Here what he had to say in response to Spike Lee’s recent criticism:

Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Spike Lee’s on your ass all the time about using the word “nigger.” What would you say to black filmmakers who are offended by the use of the word “nigger” and/or offended by the depictions of the horrors of slavery in the film?

Quentin Tarantino: Well, you know if you’re going to make a movie about slavery and are taking a 21st-century viewer and putting them in that time period, you’re going to hear some things that are going to be ugly, and you’re going see some things that are going be ugly. That’s just part and parcel of dealing truthfully with this story, with this environment, with this land.

Personally, I find [the criticism] ridiculous. Because it would be one thing if people are out there saying, “You use it much more excessively in this movie than it was used in 1858 in Mississippi.” Well, nobody’s saying that. And if you’re not saying that, you’re simply saying I should be lying. I should be watering it down. I should be making it more easy to digest.

No, I don’t want it to be easy to digest. I want it to be a big, gigantic boulder, a jagged pill and you have no water.

The Root has some other great articles about Django Unchained: Tarantino Unchained Pt. 1,  Tarantino Unchained Pt. 3 and Django Unchained: A Postracial Epic?

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Collider has a video interviews up with the cast of Django Unchained. Here they are: Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington, Christoph Waltz, and Walton Goggins. Walton Goggins might want to check out his interview with Crave Online, too.

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Esquire magazine argues that Django Unchained is a better film about slavery than Lincoln.

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It was inevitable that someone would make a Django Unchained / Blazing Saddles mashup.

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The New York Times published their review of Django Unchained.

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Samuel L. Jackson talks about deleted scenes in Django Unchained as well as playing the “Dick Cheney of Candyland.”

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The free $2 Amazon MP3 credit at Fandango expires soon! Make sure you get your ticket orders in before it goes away.

]]> http://www.djangounchained.org/django-unchained-news-update-box-office-figures-history-lessons-great-interviews-more/feed 1 http://www.djangounchained.org/open-thread-post-your-thoughts-about-django-unchained http://www.djangounchained.org/open-thread-post-your-thoughts-about-django-unchained#comments Tue, 25 Dec 2012 18:32:29 +0000 Django Unchained Blog http://www.djangounchained.org/?p=2845

So, what did you think about Django Unchained? Was it worth the 1.5 year-long wait? Where does Django Unchained rank among Quentin Tarantino’s filmography? Leave a comment letting us know your thoughts. Spoilers are permitted.

I want thank all of my readers who have supported Django Unchained Blog for the last year-and-a-half (can you believe it has been that long?!?) I never expected this blog to become as big as it did, and I couldn’t have done it without your support. I appreciate every one of your emails, tips, and pieces of fan art that you send me. I appreciate your patience when I’ve had to take breaks away from blogging. Thank you all so much.