This is Cast Clash, where we take the powerhouse casts from a pair of upcoming films and throw them in a pit together to see which one emerges victorious. Both casts are great, but only one can be the best …
Today's clash: Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (opening late 2012) vs. Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained (scheduled for Christmas Day 2012)
Sizing up Lincoln:
The cast — Daniel Day-Lewis (Abraham Lincoln), Sally Field (Mary Todd Lincoln), Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tommy Lee Jones, David Strathairn, Jackie Earl Haley, Gregory Itzin, Bruce McGill, Walton Goggins, Jared Harris, James Spader, John Hawkes and Hal Holbrook.
Any movie headlined by Day-Lewis is going to be worth seeing, but it's almost absurd the number of fantastic actors Spielberg has thrown in on top of that, from big screen legends like Field and Jones all the way down to beloved cult character actors like Hawkes, Strathairn and McGill. It's also nice to see that the shitty Nightmare on Elm Street remake hasn't tripped up Haley, and I've been wondering why Itzin hasn't gone on to bigger things after playing awesomely evil prez Charles Logan on TV's 24. Harris is really rolling now, coming off playing Moriarty in that second Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes flick and returning to the small screen in Fringe and Mad Men.
Sizing up Django Unchained:
The cast — Jamie Foxx (Django), Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Sacha Baron Cohen, Don Johnson, M.C. Gainey, Tom Savini, Walton Goggins, Gerald McRaney, James Remar and Tom Wopat.
I've never been a big fan of Foxx, but you have to assume Tarantino knows what he's doing by centering a movie around him. The guy is certainly being buffered by a shitload of undeniable talent. Tarantino finally gets the always-welcome DiCaprio in one of his movies after the guy passed on playing Landa in Inglourious Basterds. Oh, and, hey, the guy who did play Landa is here, too. (Waltz must be pleased. The Green Hornet and The Three Musketeers were probably nice paychecks, but yeeeeesh.) Russell's been mostly MIA since Grindhouse, which is way too long for his grizzled mug not to be on screen. Jackson is always the man, and Gainey and Savini are sure to make a certain geek portion of the crowd smile giddily. The Dukes of Hazzard's Tom Wopat is just the kind of pop-culture reclamation project that Tarantino does best.
And the winner is …
Well, the winner would be whichever one featured Cult Spark favorite Goggins, but lucky for him, he gets to be in both movies. So we're going to give the slight edge to Lincoln based on the fact that its acting roster is unimpeachable while Tarantino's cast is so eclectic (even more so than usual) that it could effectively work for or against the movie. (Take Cohen for example, who could be a revelation in his small part in Django … or a distraction.) Both films feature a group of actors worth getting excited about. but it's Spielberg who has assembled the truly super troupe.
UPDATE 5/10/12: Looks like Russell and Cohen have both bailed on Django.
