Kanye West has claimed that Quentin Tarantino and Jamie Foxx stole the idea of Django Unchained.
The rapper, who has made a number of alarming remarks in recent weeks, said he originally pitched the story to the pair in the hopes he could turn it into the music video for his 2005 song “Gold Digger”.
Foxx, who played the lead role in Tarantino’s Django Unchained in 2012, featured on West’s song.
West claimed to have pitched a slavery-themed story for the music video – but, in the end, the idea didn’t manifest. The video, which starred Foxx, was directed by Hype Williams.
Speaking on Piers Morgan Uncensored, West, who now goes by the name Ye, said: “Actually, [Tarantino] and Jamie, they got the idea from me, because the idea for Django, I pitched to Jamie Foxx and Quentin Tarantino as the video for ‘Gold Digger’. And then Tarantino turned it into a film.”
The Independent has contacted Tarantino, who wrote and directed the film, and Foxx for comment.
West has recently found himself embroiled in controversy over a number of antisemtic remarks, and has consequently been dropped by French fashion house Balenciaga.
Tarantino, whose most recent film was 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is releasing a new film book, titled Cinema Speculation, on 25 October.
In 2019, it was reported he was working on an adaptation of a Django Unchained comic book miniseries.
It sees Foxx’s title character safely settling his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) in Chicago and taking up jobs to help fund her life.
On his travels, he meets Zorro (the same character played by Antonio Banderas) and the pair team up after Django becomes his bodyguard. It’s titled Django/Zorro.
