Writer/director Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 western Django Unchained was among the more celebrated films making the rounds this time last year. The pic was an remarkable part-homage-to, part-parody-of the spaghetti western genre that also presented one of the strongest condemnations of slavery seen in the movies before this year’s 12 Years A Slave. Tarantino clearly had some fun with his luxuriantly brutal romp through the wild west, and as we first reported in late November, it looks like he’s headed back to the frontier. 

Tarantino’s next project will reportedly be called The Hateful Eight, which by all appearances is a direct reference to the landmark 1960 western The Magnificent Seven. Although it’s yet to be confirmed, Tarantino could start shooting this summer, which would put him on track to hit theaters ahead of the MGM remake of The Magnificent Seven, which is still in the scripting phase. First, he’ll need to assemble a cast. In addition to what seems to be the now-requisite part written for Christoph Waltz, whom Tarantino has guided to a pair of Best Supporting Actor Oscars (Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained), Tarantino is apparently working to enlist the support of Django casting director Victoria Thomas to flesh out his eight (or maybe more) leading roles. This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of Thomas’s first casting director gig, Repo Man, which starred Emilio Estevez, and has since worked on projects such as Ed Wood, The Last Samurai, and Blood Diamond. She proved resourceful on Django, securing Jaime Foxx for the title role after Will Smith balked at the part.

Doubtless we’ll hear plenty in the near future, as the project is just emerging from development and has lots of pieces to secure in advance of the proposed summer start to production.