Kurt Russell will pick up Kevin Costner's slave-training slack in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained

It seems as though Quentin Tarantino may have found his likeably all-American actor to whip some slaves into shape—but you know, likeably—in Django Unchained, and he didn't have to look that far. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Kurt Russell is now in talks to replace Kevin Costner in the role of Ace, Leonardo DiCaprio’s trainer of “mandingo”-style fighters, rejoining the director who most recently reminded everyone that Kurt Russell is a total badass with Death Proof. If Russell takes the role, it will be the most sadistic thing he did on screen since that time he flayed Dakota Fanning alive in Dreamer: Inspired By A True Story. (Note: I’ve never seen Dreamer.)