Jennifer Jason Leigh is set to take the lead role in Quentin Tarantino’s much-hyped latest western, The Hateful Eight, reports The Wrap.

The 52-year-old Hollywood-born actor is in line to play Daisy Domergue, a tough prisoner accused of murder and set to hang for her crimes. The role, reportedly coveted by actors such as Michelle Williams, Hilary Swank, Robin Wright and Demi Moore, was played by Amber Tamblyn from Django Unchained at April’s live read-through of the Hateful Eight screenplay at the United Artists Theatre in Los Angeles.

Leigh is nevertheless said to have been one of Tarantino’s top choices from the beginning, and attended the read-through. She has one of the most diverse CVs in Hollywood, from early work in the classic 80s high school drama Fast Times at Ridgemont High to David Cronenberg’s 90s science fiction body horror Existenz and more recently a supporting role in Charlie Kaufman’s 2008 directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York.

The Hateful Eight is set in Wyoming after the American civil war, and according to its synopsis “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”.

Rumoured cast members include Samuel L Jackson (Major Warren), Kurt Russell (John Ruth), Tim Roth (Oswaldo Mobray), Michael Madsen (Joe Gage) and Walton Goggins (Chris Mannix), as well as Bruce Dern, who is set to play General Smithers. According to the Wrap, James Remar (Jody), James Parks (OB) Dana Gourrier (Minnie) and Zoe Bell (Six-Horse Judy) will fill out the supporting roles.

Tarantino is expected to begin shooting within weeks in a ranch in southern Colorado, according to local reports. The Hateful Eight is due to hit cinemas in late 2015.