British actress Kate Winslet has just clinched the lead role in the movie adaptation of the book The Dressmaker by Melbourne-based novelist Rosalie Ham.

This new development was announced by Variety adding final casting is yet to be confirmed before the start of pre-production in the spring.

The Dressmaker is a mysteriously dark story of love, hate, tragedy and haute couture amid the backdrop of 1950's Outback Australia.

Winslet plays the role of Tilly, a lovely soul who decides one day she's leaving Europe to go back to the small town she grew up in to take care of her crazed mother. She then finds herself in the middle of some colourful and offensive characters going up against her, until they realised Tilly's amazing dressmaking skills. A lot of references to 1950s Australian brands and lavish high fashion descriptions accompany the story throughout.

Set in the fictional place of golden wheatbelt town of Dungatar, sources say location hunting has started hinting at Wimmeria region in north-west Victoria.

Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse (Proof), this tragic-comedy film will reportedly employ an experienced local crew led by photography director Don McAlpine of "X-Men: Wolverine," costume designer Janet Patterson who also did work on "Bright Star," and Jill Bilcock as editor whose major works include the "Moulin Rouge."

This will be Moorhouse's first film since the ill-fated "Ecalyptus" in 2005, an adaptation of the Murray Bail novel of the same title, which supposed to star Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman. The project was cancelled few days before the start of actual filming due to alleged "creative disagreements" among principal players.

The last time the Oscar best actress Winslet shot a film in Australia was in the late 1990s when she starred in Jane Campion's Holy Smoke filmed in outback South Australia.