Actor Jamie Foxx is teaming up with famed director Quentin Tarantino for an unusual Western movie, calledDjango Unchained.

Best known for his Oscar-winning portrayal of Ray Charles in the biopic movie Ray, this time around Foxx plays a pre-Civil War “slave” named Django, who is in search of his sold-off wife (played by Kerry Washington, who, coincidentally, was also his wife in Ray).

Django’s slave-status is actually in question, since he was sent off to a chain gang by his owners.  But it presents a huge obstacle to his goal of finding his wife.

When speaking to Entertainment Weekly about the film, Foxx described his character as “Richard Roundtree meets Clint Eastwood.”  And when asked if he thought the movie will be controversial, Foxx responded, “Oh, hell yeah.  You kidding me?”

Although director Tarantino is more widely know for his wild, violent, and over-the-top storytelling (i.e. the Kill Bill franchise), Foxx said that Tarrantino explores the issue of slavery seriously:

“There’s a beautiful way [Tarantino] found for the characters to talk to each other. It’s mind-blowing. You’ve never heard it this way,” the actor says. “You’ve seen movies deal with slavery — or westerns thatnever dealt with slavery — do it the safe way. This way is like…wow.”