Amidst a sea of prestigious musicals (Les Misérables), 3D classic American literature adaptations (The Great Gatsby), Tom Cruise thrillers (One Shot) and a return trip to Middle-earth (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey), there's one film due to hit theaters this December that stands out as genuinely original, yet also firmly rooted in film history: Quentin Tarantino's southern-fried Spaghetti western homage, Django Unchained.

The official Django Unchained teaser poster unveiled earlier this week provided a small taste of the remixed retro flavor that characterizes the Pulp Fiction director's latest production. For those who haven't been following Screen Rant's coverage of the film's casting process - or already sought out a leaked copy of the Django Unchained script online - we can now offer a full plot synopsis for Tarantino's new project, which you can read below.

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Set in the South two years before the Civil War, "Django Unchained" stars Academy Award®-winner Jamie Foxx as Django, a slave whose brutal history with his former owners lands him face-to-face with German-born bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Academy Award®-winner Christoph Waltz). Schultz is on the trail of the murderous Brittle brothers, and only Django can lead him to his bounty. The unorthodox Schultz acquires Django with a promise to free him upon the capture of the Brittles – dead or alive.

Success leads Schultz to free Django, though the two men choose not to go their separate ways. Instead, Schultz seeks out the South’s most wanted criminals with Django by his side. Honing vital hunting skills, Django remains focused on one goal: finding and rescuing Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), the wife he lost to the slave trade long ago.

Django and Schultz’s search ultimately leads them to Calvin Candie (Academy Award®-nominee Leonardo DiCaprio), the proprietor of “Candyland,” an infamous plantation where slaves are groomed by trainer Ace Woody (Kurt Russell) to battle each other for sport. Exploring the compound under false pretenses, Django and Schultz arouse the suspicion of Stephen (Academy Award®-nominee Samuel L. Jackson), Candie's trusted house slave. Their moves are marked, and a treacherous organization closes in on them. If Django and Schultz are to escape with Broomhilda, they must choose between independence and solidarity, between sacrifice and survival...

Django Unchained is expected to resemble the majority of Tarantino's directorial work, featuring such elements as his customary literary dialogue, stylistic imitations of classic filmmaking techniques, colorful variations on familiar character types (here, those commonly found in old-fashioned westerns) and a chapter-oriented storyline that continually jumps back and forth between different narrative threads. Similarly, the film's cast includes veterans of the Tarantino-verse (Waltz, Jackson, Russell), cult TV icons (M.C. Gainey, Don Johnson, Gerald McRaney) and already-successful performance artists looking to stretch their wings (Sacha Baron Cohen, RZA) alike.

In other words: Django Unchained is as thoroughly a "Tarantino-esque" affair as they come. Detractors of the man's approach to filmmaking need not apply. Everyone else - best to mark your calendars for Christmas Day 2012, since that's when the eponymous ex-slave turned bounty hunter begins his rampage in theaters.

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Source: The Weinstein Company