Tarantino's Unchained announces latest actor to join cast

Todd Allen, whose credits stretch to the 1982 48 Hours, has joined the cast of Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained.

Allen will play Dollar Bill, a plantation overseer.

Jamie Foxx has the title role of Django, a freed slave who is befriended by a German dentist-turned-bounty hunter. The bounty hunter, played by Christoph Waltz, helps Django free his wife from the evil plantation owner Calvin Candie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington and Don Johnson also star.

In addition to acting, Allen is president of the Austin, Texas-based Presidio Pictures, a film and television production company.

He played a young cop in 48 Hours and has appeared opposite Robert Duvall in The Apostle and Broken Trail.

Django Unchained will shoot in New Orleans and is scheduled to be released on Christmas Day 2012.

Tarantino wrote and is directing the movie.

Stacey Sher, Pilar Savone and Reginald Hudlin are producing.

The Weinstein Co. will release Django Unchained domestically. Sony Pictures will handle it internationally.