Samuel L. Jackson recently appeared in "The Avengers," the year's biggest movie so far. However, to no one's surprise, that won't be the last we'll see of the prolific actor in the near future. With over 140 credits to his name, Jackson stays rather busy.
We'll next be seeing him in Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" (though he didn't appear in the recently released trailer), and he just signed on to star in José Padilha's "Robocop" remake.
None of this casting news is very surprising now, as, over the last two decades, Jackson has starred in a bunch of cool, popular projects. He's been seen in everything from the "Star Wars" prequels to the cinematic Marvel Universe. Because of this, he is, technically speaking, the highest grossing actor of all time. Not bad for a guy who didn't even receive his big break until he was over 40 years old.
That break came in 1991's "Jungle Fever," where Jackson's turn as a cocaine addict earned him critical acclaim. His celebrated role in the Spike Lee film came after years of smaller roles in movies like "Goodfellas, "Do The Right Thing," and "The Exorcist III."
However, it wasn't until 1993 when Jackson was really put on the path to true super stardom. His appearance in "True Romance" caught the eye of the film's writer, Quentin Tarantino, who in turn cast him in the role of Jules Winfield in "Pulp Fiction."
Jackson has frequently collaborated with the director ever since; "Death Proof" is the only Tarantino film he sat out entirely, narrating "Inglourious Basterds" despite not actually appearing onscreen in the film.
In "Django Unchained," Jackson will actually be playing the "right-hand man to a sadistic slave-master" played by Leonardo DiCaprio. That actually doesn't sound cool at all, so it might let Jackson show off a different set of chops as a more villainous character.
In "Robocop," he'll be playing a media mogul, which does sound much more like one of his cool alpha male roles. Plus, it hints that this update of the 1987 film is retaining the original's incisive look at pop culture through media.
Of course, fans should also expect to see Jackson as Nick Fury at least a few more times: The actor signed a nine-film commitment to play the S.H.I.E.L.D. leader and Avengers Initiative figurehead back in 2009.
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