Quentin Tarantino's next Western to be called The Hateful Eight

The Django Unchained director may have written a part for Christoph Waltz

Tarantino is donning his cowboy hat again for an upcoming Western (Getty Images)

Quentin Tarantino’s next Western film is to be called The Hateful Eight, it has been reported.

The quirky director of cult classics Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs announced late last year that he was busy writing a new movie.

Now, industry insider The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Tarantino will begin casting for the film shortly, possibly with the help of casting director Victoria Thomas.

Shooting may be starting this summer, but there has been no official confirmation as of yet.

Tarantino has reportedly written a part specifically for Christoph Walt, who has starred in the director’s two most recent movies, Django Unchained and Inglourious Basterds, both of which won the Austrian Oscars for Best Supporting Actor. Nebraska’s Bruce Dern has also been tipped for a part.

It remains unknown where The Hateful Eight title has originated from, but it could be a reference to John Sturges’ Western-style remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1950s film Seven Samurai.

In the original, seven unemployed American gunmen are assigned to guard a poor Mexican village when it comes under attack from bandits. The samurai teach the townspeople how to defend themselves in return for meals.

Tarantino, 50, told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show that his upcoming project would not be a sequel to his 2013 Oscar winner.

“I can’t talk that much about it, but I will say one thing,” he said. “I haven’t told anyone about this publicly, but I will say the genre. It’s a Western.

“It’s not a Django sequel, but it is another Western, and the thing is I had so much fun doing Django and I love Westerns so much, that after I taught myself how to make one, it’s like ‘Okay, let me make another now that I know what I’m doing’.”