Kevin Costner walks away from Tarantino's Django Unchained

Just when we thought Quentin Tarantino was bringing together the most awesome cast of all time for his slave western Django Unchained, one of the folks we were most excited about seeing has left the project.

Kevin Costner, rumoured to be playing Ace Woody (one of lead villain's Calvin Candie's key crew), has passed on the picture, citing 'scheduling conflicts.'

It looks like Costner would rather make a TV movie entitled The Hatfields & The McCoys for the History Channel with his old pal Kevin Reynolds than work with the most exciting living director in the world.

But Kevin is also appearing in Zack Snyder's Superman reboot Man Of Steel , so maybe his role in that is bigger than we first thought.

Either way, Tarantino will now have to find a new Ace. The gossips are currently suggesting Danny McBride, but we're not sure if we see it. Costner and McBride couldn't be more different.

And we're particularly disappointed that Costner has dropped out, as we were looking forward to watching Django and Fandango in a Kevin Costner-themed rhyming double-bill. That dream is over.

Sam Ashurst is a London-based film maker, journalist, and podcast host. He's the director of Frankenstein's Creature, A Little More Flesh + A Little More Flesh 2, and co-hosts the Arrow Podcast. His words have appeared on HuffPost, MSN, The Independent, Yahoo, Cosmopolitan, and many more, as well as of course for us here at GamesRadar+.