Kevin Costner has been the butt of many jokes over the years before the actor seemed to disappear for while to focus on other things, including his efforts to try and help clean up after the Gulf Coast oil spill a couple of years ago. Apart from a two–year absence from 2003 to 2005, he has continued to act, but keeping it to a movie per year or so and keeping himself out of the spotlight for the most part.

Now it appears he wants to make something of a comeback with some very intriguing supporting roles.

We first found out Costner was going to play the man that will raise Superman, Jonathan Kent, in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. Now comes word that Costner has joined the cast of Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming western, Django Unchained. Costner will play a villain in the movie, a man who trains the slaves to fight so they can battle to the death for the amusement of slavemaster Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Costner joins the fantastic cast that already includes DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson as Candie’s right–hand man, and Jamie Foxx as the lead, Django, a former slave going back to get his wife with the help of a German bounty hunter played by Christoph Waltz.

Costner also has two other less–known titles on the way in A Little War of Our Own and Learning Italian.

[Source: Heat Vision]