Quentin Tarantino has shelved his next project after he discovered that one of the six people who had been given the script had leaked it.

The furious director revealed his decision to can the project, only recently announced as being called 'The Hateful Eight', in an extraordinary interview with US film site Deadline.

Tarantino said that he had given the script to actors Tim Roth, Bruce Dern and Michael Madsen and their respective agents.

"I’m very, very depressed," he said.

"I finished a script, a first draft, and I didn’t mean to shoot it until next winter, a year from now. I gave it to six people, and apparently it’s gotten out today."

"I gave it to one of the producers on 'Django Unchained', Reggie Hudlin, and he let an agent come to his house and read it. That’s a betrayal, but not crippling because the agent didn’t end up with the script."

"There is an ugly maliciousness to the rest of it. I gave it to three actors: Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth. The one I know didn’t do this is Tim Roth. One of the others let their agent read it and that agent has now passed it on to everyone in Hollywood."

"I don’t know how these f**king agents work, but I’m not making this next. I’m going to publish it, and that’s it for now. I give it out to six people and if I can’t trust them to that degree, then I have no desire to make it. I’ll publish it. I’m done. I’ll move on to the next thing. I’ve got ten more where that came from."

"I hadn’t given it to Christoph (Waltz), I haven’t given it to Sam Jackson. I gave it to three motherf**king actors. We met in a place and I put it in their hands. Reggie Hudlin’s agent never had a copy. It’s got to be either the agents of Dern or Madsen. Please name names."

He added that he may publish his script instead.

Source: Press Release