Joseph Gordon-Levitt has pulled out of Quentin Tarantino's all-star western Django Unchained because he's too busy with his directorial debut.

The Inception star is set to appear alongside Scarlett Johansson in his first film as a director and he tells MTV News that left little time for him to take on Tarantino's blockbuster.

He says, "I've been in touch with Quentin about it, and it was so cool to trust me to do this little part in his movie.

"I would have loved, loved to have done it. He's one of my very favorite filmmakers, and he was really supportive of me directing and that meant the world to me."

Django Unchained stars Gordon-Levitt's Inception co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson and Jamie Foxx.