20 Things You Didn't Know About Jackie Brown
16. Another Tarantino-Travolta Team-up?
With Cherry cast, one would assume the hard work was over. Movies typically have one role that every actor covets and when it's sealed, the film becomes a less attractive property.
The only problem is Tarantino and Leonard spent their careers making fully realized, complex, quirky characters that any actor would be crazy to turn their back on. Such was the case with ATF Agent Ray Nicolette. Fans of Leonard are familiar with Nicolette, the fast talking, funny agent that was ultimately nailed by an under-appreciated Michael Keaton. Keaton would go on to play the character in Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight the following year.
But the role was just as attractive as Cherry, and Keaton was reluctant. "His whole process was to convince me that he's not right for the role", recalled Tarantino. "But he never quite convinced me. Michael's whole thing is to deny himself and to say he's not right."
But before he secured Keaton, Tarantino's first choice was to continue helping Travolta. It would have been his second Elmore Leonard adaptation following the successful Get Shorty.