Quentin Tarantino has cast Jennifer Jason Leigh in the lead female role for his forthcoming Wyoming-set western The Hateful Eight.
Set in the aftermath of the American Civil War, the Django Unchained director is due to start shooting the film at a ranch in Colorado on December 8.
Leigh beat a host of big names to land one of the most coveted roles in Hollywood, reports The Wrap. She is in line to play ‘the prisoner’ Daisy Domergue, wanted for murder and due to hang for her crimes.
Jennifer Lawrence was previously reported to be in talks for the role while Michelle Williams, Hilary Swank and Demi Moore were also chasing the part.
It is reported that past Tarantino collaborators Samuel L. Jackson (Major Warren), Kurt Russell (John Ruth), Tim Roth (Oswaldo Mobray), Michael Madsen (Joe Gage), Walton Goggins (Chris Mannix) and Denis Menochet (Bob) are expected to star alongside Bruce Dern, who will play General Smithers.
James Remar (Jody), James Parks (O.B.), Dana Gourrier (Minnie) and Tarantino’s Death Proof star Zoe Bell (Six-Horse Judy) are expected to fill out the rest of the ensemble.
The film’s synopsis has revealed the western “follows the steadily ratcheting tension that develops after a blizzard diverts a stagecoach from its route, and traps a pitiless and mistrustful group which includes a competing pair of bounty hunters, a renegade Confederate soldier, and a female prisoner in a saloon in the middle of nowhere”.
Leigh found fame as a member of the Brat Pack in 80s teen films like Fast Times at Ridgemont High. She also starred alongside Meg Ryan in the Jane Campion erotic thriller In the Cut and more recently with Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche New York.
The Hateful Eight is expected to be released in cinemas winter 2015.