John Hawkes & Mos Def To Star in Jackie Brown Prequel (Kind Of)

By Matt Holmes / February 2, 2012

We've seen the adventures of Elmore Leonard's characters Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara before on our big screens, memorably played by Samuel L. Jackson and Robert De Niro in Quentin Tarantino's brilliant 1997 film Jackie Brown, but now two new actors are going to give the famous duo a stab. Variety says Vasiin Bey (rapper/actor who formerly went by the name Mos Def) and John Hawkes will play Robbie and Gara respectively in Switch, an adaptation of the 1978 Leonard published novel 'The Switch' that first introduced these characters in written form. The Switch is set 15 years before Jackie Brown (or Leonard's novel Rum Punch if we are being accurate), basically the time Ordell was referring to in the Jackie Brown film when he said; "What the fuck happened to you, man? Shit, your ass used to be beautiful" to Louis and the film isn't really going to be a prequel as it has no involvement or link to Quentin Tarantino's film except their relationship to Leonard's writings. Dan Schechter (Supporting Characters) is writing and directing the film that is just going by the name Switch (possibly because Jason Bateman & Jennifer Aniston starred in a romantic comedy last year titled 'The Switch') and it carries the following synopsis;

Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara have lots in common€”time in the same slammer, convictions for grand theft auto, and a plan for a big score. They€™re going to snatch the wife of a Detroit developer and collect some easy ransom money. They don€™t figure on a bum of a husband who has a secret mistress and no desire to get his wife back. Or on his crazy, beautiful broad of a housewife who€™s going to join Ordell and Louis in the slickest, saviest crime of all.

Schechter was such a big fan of the novel that he wrote a spec script and pitched it without Leonard's blessing, but in the end the author liked his take so much that he is on board to help produce the adaptation. The film will shoot in May.