Sacha Baron Cohen Drops Out of 'Django Unchained'

The supporting cast members for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained seem to be dropping like flies. Last month, Joseph Gordon-Levitt exited the project to film his directorial debut, Don Jon's Addiction (starring Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore). And more recently, rumors have indicated that Kurt Russell and Sacha Baron Cohen may be out of the film as well. Though there's no official word yet on Russell's status (update: his exit now confirmed by Variety), Sacha Baron Cohen appeared on Howard Stern yesterday and revealed he will no longer appear in Django Unchained due to press tour scheduling conflicts: "that was going to be a cameo, but I had to drop out because of [The Dictator's] press tour." While Cohen indicates a cameo, his role of Scotty Harmony felt like at least 10 minutes worth of screen time based on the screenplay.

Django Unchained mentioned on Howard Stern at 6:56:

Who do you think would make a solid replacement? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Django Unchained opens December 25th and stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kerry Washington.

[UPDATE: Thursday, May 10, 2:48 AM]

It looks like Kurt Russell has dropped out as well. Variety's Jeff Sneider tweeted the following just a few hours ago:

EXCLUSIVE: First KEVIN COSTNER, and now KURT RUSSELL has EXITED the cast of QT's DJANGO UNCHAINED. No reason given or replacement named...

— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) May 10, 2012