'Hateful Eight' cast is officially announced

NEW YORK, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Channing Tatum's name was among those announced Thursday as cast members of writer-director Quentin Tarantino's upcoming post-Civil War picture The Hateful Eight.

After weeks of speculation and media leaks, The Weinstein Co. officially confirmed the 19th century-set film will star Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen.

This will be Leigh, Bichir and Tatum's first film with Tarantino, while the rest of the cast has worked with him in the past.

Jonah Hill, Tatum's co-star in 21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie and 22 Jump Street, appeared in Tarantino's 2012 movie Django Unchained.

"Any actor who jumps on board with one of Quentin's films is in for a wild and rewarding ride," Bob and Harvey Weinstein, TWC co-chairmen, said in a statement. "We couldn't be any more thrilled with the fantastic group of performers we've assembled for The Hateful Eight -- some perennial fixtures in his movies and some newcomers -- and can't wait to kick off the shoot in Telluride."

To be released next year, The Hateful Eight will be Tarantino's eighth feature. His last film Django Unchained earned him an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and grossed more than $425 million worldwide. "Six or eight or 12 years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape," a synopsis for the new film said.

"The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth and his fugitive Daisy Domergue, race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as 'The Hangman,' will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren, a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix, a southern renegade who claims to be the town's new Sheriff.

Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie's Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie's, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob, who's taking care of Minnie's while she's visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray, the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage, and Confederate General Sanford Smithers. As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all."