Quentin Tarantino plans new western called The Hateful Eight

Quentin Tarantino's followup to the Oscar-winning Django Unchained will be a second western titled The Hateful Eight, according to several US reports.

The maverick film-maker revealed in November that his experience shooting Django Unchained had left him determined to revisit the genre. He also said the new film would not be a sequel to his debut in the form. "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, 'OK, now let me make another one now that I know what I'm doing,'" he told US talk show host Jay Leno, theguardian.com reports.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, there will be a part in The Hateful Eight for Christoph Waltz, who has won best supporting actor Oscars for his last two films with the US director, Django and Inglourious Basterds. The film's title is said to continue Tarantino's fondness for riffing on famous genre and exploitation movies, being a nod to the western The Magnificent Seven (and by extension that film's inspiration, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai). Rival US site Deadline separately confirms the "Hateful Eight" title, and suggests another likely cast member is Bruce Dern, who's currently in the running for an Oscar nomination for the Cannes smash Nebraska.

Tarantino reportedly hopes to shoot his new western this summer, though as ever there is no guarantee the movie will ever find its way into cinemas. The director of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs has talked up numerous projects over the years that have failed to see the light of day, including a Kill Bill sequel, a prequel to Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs titled The Vega Brothers (starring the characters played by John Travolta and Michael Madsen in those earlier films) and a third "rewritten history" film following Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained.

Django Unchained was in many ways the most successful film of Tarantino's career. It was his biggest ever box-office hit, grossing a hugely impressive $425m worldwide, and was also popular with critics. The western, about a freed slave who enacts revenge on his wife's captors, was nominated for five Oscars. Tarantino took home the prize for best original screenplay in February 2013.