The recent claim made byKanye Westthat he was the one who came up with the idea forDjango Unchainedisn’t quite true, according to the director of the film. Recently, Ye turned some heads when he told Piers Morgan in an interview thathe’d pitched the concept ofDjango Unchainedto Quentin Tarantino and Jamie Foxx. The rapper said he wanted to use the idea for his “Gold Digger” music video, but when the pitch was scrapped, Tarantino went on to turn it into a feature film.
“Tarantino can write a movie about slavery where – actually him and Jamie, they got the idea from me because the idea forDjango, I pitched to Jamie Foxx andQuentin Tarantinoas the video for ‘Gold Digger.' And then Tarantino turned it into a film," Ye proclaimed.
Now, Tarantino has stepped in to offer some clarification on what really happened during a newJimmy Kimmel Live!interview. The director confirms that he had in fact had some talks with Ye about the “Gold Digger” video, admitting he was in fact intrigued by how the rapper wanted to ironically use a slavery theme. But Tarantino also says this was not at all where he got the idea forDjango Unchained.
“There’s not truth to the idea that Kanye West came up with the idea ofDjango, and then he told it to me, and I go, ‘Hey, wow, that’s a really great idea. Let me take Kanye’s idea and makeDjango Unchainedout of it.' That didn’t happen,” Tarantino told Kimmel.
The director added, “I had the idea forDjangofor a while before I ever met Kanye.”
Related:8 Easter Eggs in the Shared Quentin Tarantino Cinematic Universe
Who Came Up With the Idea for Django Unchained?
Quentin Tarantino also shared how he met Kanye West. He says Ye was planning on bringing in different directors to make feature films based on different tracks from his albumCollege Dropout, and that led to a meeting with Tarantino. During these talks, Ye also brought up his plans for his “Gold Digger” video, which was to add a slavery theme in an ironic way. For his part, Tarantino says he was really entertained by the concept, even if it wasn’t an inspiration forDjango Unchained.
“He did have an idea for a video, and I do think it was for the ‘Gold Digger’ video, that he would be a slave,” Tarantino said. “And the whole thing was the slave narrative, where he’s the slave, and he’s singing ‘Gold Digger.’ And it was very funny. It was a really, really funny idea.”
As Kimmel was a bit perplexed, Tarantino further explained, “It was meant to be ironic. And it’s like a huge musical. I mean, like no expenses spared, alright, with him in this slave rag outfit, doing everything. And then that was also part of the part of the pushback on it. But, I wish he had done it. It sounded really cool.”
