The casting news for Django Unchained was a prolonged affair---in part because we in the movie blog community are obsessed with the new Quentin Tarantino project, but also because it took time to finalize deals and align schedules for the big-name cast.  Jamie Foxx stars in the titular role, a freed slave who trains with a German bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) to rescue Django's wife from their evil owner (Leonardo DiCaprio).  Add Kevin Costner to the mix, and that's a great, eclectic collection of actors.  However, a Tarantino movie feels incomplete without the presence of Samuel L. Jackson (or at least his voice).  Variety is happy to confirm Jackson will reunite with the director for Django Unchained, their fifth feature collaboration since Pulp Ficition debuted in 1994.  Jackson will play Stephen, "a house slave and the right-hand man of a sadistic slavemaster."  Like Jackson's more recent participation in Kill Bill Vol. 2 and Inglorious Basterds, this may be a smaller role.  Filming is scheduled to begin in November, but Jackson will be busy with the fall run of The Mountaintop on Broadway; instead he'll join the cast in New Orleans until January.  As long as Jackson says or does something badass during whatever screentime he is awarded, I'll be happy.Django will be chained until December 25, 2012, at which point The Weinstein Company will unchain him.