Hollywood hunk Brad Pitt is to star as outlaw legend Jesse James in a movie about the gunslinger's assassination by a disgruntled gang member, according to Variety.

Casey Affleck, younger brother of Ben Affleck, will play the villain in the movie, due to start filming later this month.

Based on the Robert Hansen novel "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford", the movie tells the story of Ford - who joined the gang as a youth and went from idolising to resenting James, eventually shooting him in the back.