It's still not guaranteed that, as reported last week, Will Smith will star in Quentin Tarantino's next film Django Unchained, playing a former slave who teams up with a German bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) to rescue his wife and kill his former master. But if you want evidence that Smith is really considering it, and that Tarantino really wants him in the film, look no further than today's Deadline article, which reveals that Sony will handle the international distribution for Django Unchained, and will also co-finance the production.

The filmmakers met with every major studios except Warner Bros., and Inglourious Basterds international distributor Universal wanted the film so badly that they actually made scalps-- y'know, like the ones Aldo Raine collected from Nazis?-- to present to Tarantino during a meeting on Friday. The Weinstein Company has domestic distribution rights, so that part's not on the table. But the reason for going with Sony internationally is pretty simple-- it's where Smith makes his movies, and Tarantino and company want to do pretty much everything to make this film an obvious choice for the biggest movie star in the world. An insider source told Deadline, "Having Will involved is the key. That's what the filmmakers want and they think the best chance of making it happen is at his home studio."

I'm still fascinated by the idea of Smith being in a Tarantino film, and will be writing more about my thoughts on all that later, especially now that it looks even more likely he'll be taking part. Do you guys think it's worth it for Tarantino to court Smith so aggressively, or do you wish he'd cast an unknown or more unexpected actor to work opposite Waltz in his next film?