Sacha Baron Cohen, Kurt Russell Exit 'Django Unchained'

Once the film that every actor in Hollywood clamored to join, Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" has lost two more cast members. Sacha Baron Cohen and Kurt Russell have both dropped out of Tarantino's Southern-set western.

As The Playlist originally reported, Baron Cohen announced during his interview with Howard Stern that his commitments to the press circuit for "The Dictator" made it impossible for him to film the part, which he described as a cameo. He was set to play Scotty, a sort of man-child who comes to own the title character's wife. The role was supposedly re-written for Baron Cohen, and there's been no word on who may replace him.

There is far more mystery surrounding Russell's departure. Variety broke the story but could provide no explanation for the move. Russell took the part of Ace Woody, a slave trainer, after Kevin Costner turned down the role. The current rumor going around is that instead of recasting Woody, Tarantino has decided to drop the character from the film all together. However, this is still a tenuous rumor at best.

We broke the news last month that Joseph Gordon-Levitt had to ultimately turn down a small role in order to focus on his directorial debut. When we spoke with Gordon-Levitt, he only had kind words for the film and Tarantino. "I've been in touch with Quentin about it, and it was so cool to trust me to do this little part in his movie," Gordon-Levitt said. "I would have loved, loved to have done it. He's one of my very favorite filmmakers, and he was really supportive of me directing and that meant the world to me."

But before we all begin to panic about the state of "Django Unchained," we should remember a few things. All of the roles in question were relatively small. Scotty only appears in a minor subplot of the film, while Ace Woody is more of a background player in the scenes involving Leonardo DiCaprio's Calvin Candie. Secondly, this is a Tarantino movie we're talking about. With great lead actors firmly in place and another classic script, we don't have too much to worry about.

What do you think this means for "Django Unchained"? Let us know in the comments below and on Twitter!

Tags Django Unchained, joseph gordon-levitt, kurt russell, leonardo dicaprio, quentin tarantino, Sacha Baron Cohen