Julia Garner cast in Weapons

Julia Garner is set to star in the horror thriller 'Weapons'.

The 30-year-old actress has landed a leading role opposite Josh Brolin in the feature from filmmaker Zach Cregger.

The director has also penned the top-secret script for the project – which has been described as an epic story that has a similar tone to 'Magnolia', Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 movie that had a cast including Jeremy Blackman and Tom Cruise.

The film is set to begin shooting in Atlanta in the middle of next month.

Julia rose to prominence with her role in the Netflix series 'Ozark' and is now one of the industry's most in-demand stars – to the extent that she had been cast as Madonna in a biopic.

The project was shelved last year as the Queen of Pop embarked on her 'Celebration' world tour although Julia hasn't given up hope of getting to star in the film.

She told Entertainment Tonight: "Yeah, yeah. I don't want to tell too much. I want to keep things... yeah, fingers crossed."

Madonna is set to direct her own biopic and the music megastar believes that she is the only person who can do justice to her story.

The 'Material Girl' singer said: "I've had an extraordinary life, I must make an extraordinary film.

"It was also a pre-emptive strike, because a lot of people were trying to make movies about me. Mostly misogynistic men. So, I put my foot in the door and said, 'No one's going to tell my story but me.'

"I have a very long script that is really hard for me to make shorter. I've been whittling away at it, but it's like hacking off my limbs."