Mardi

Through the years, New Orleans' ready-made movie sets (d.b.a. the city) have been the backdrop for cult attracters Easy Rider, Steve McQueen and Nicholas Cage (reality and movie for him!). Quentin Tarantino could probably tell us a dozen more that are way better, but that's why he gets the megaphone. In any case, the man who gave us Pulp Fiction and a lot of grotesque violence that was somehow funny appears poised to add his own crop of NOLA scenes to the canon when he films his next project, Django Unchained, here next year, according to the New Orleans Office of Film and Video.

Tarantino has lined up a ridiculously star-studded cast for the "Spaghetti Southern"  that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx,  Kevin Costner, Christoph Waltz and, because someone needs to be a badass, Samuel L. Jackson. As for the plot, the tale of a freed slave (Foxx) who learns "skills" from a bounty hunter (Waltz), will be played against that of a plantation owner (DiCaprio) who teaches his slaves to fight will somehow be treated lightly, Tarantino has said. Glad to see QT's still not taking some of our worst atrocities too seriously.