Russell in talks for 'Django' role

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Kurt Russell is in talks to replace Kevin Costner in Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained," a film set in the 1800s American South.

The Hollywood Reporter said Costner dropped out of the flick last week, but the entertainment industry trade newspaper did not say why he left the production.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz, the movie is about a freed slave who teams up with a German bounty hunter to find his wife.

If negotiations go well, Russell would play Ace, the ruthless manager of a plantation in the movie, which is to start shooting in November, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Russell previously starred in Tarantino's movie "Death Proof."