Hey, remember “The Switch”? That Elmore Leonard adaptation, which is a prequel to “Jackie Brown”? Writer/director Dan Schechter is attached to it. Does any of that ring a bell? Well, if you do remember and have been looking forward to this, rest assured, it’s still happening, albeit with some casting changes.
Will Forte and Tim Robbins will be replacing Ty Burrell and Dennis Quaid, but the rest of the cast, which includes John Hawkes, Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def), Jennifer Aniston and Isla Fisher, still remains intact. Hawkes and Bey are playing the younger versions of the Louis and Ordell characters, previously played by Robert De Niro and Samuel L. Jackson.
The Elmore Leonard adaptation, set fifteen years before “Jackie Brown,” follows Louis and Ordell as they come together with a plan to kidnap a corrupt real estate developer’s wife (Aniston). When the husband refuses to pay the ransom, their plan starts to get complicated. Tim Robbins will be playing the real estate developer, and Will Forte will play a witness to the kidnapping.
It should be interesting to see what Forte and Robbins will bring to their respective roles. The former just wrapped on “Nebraska,” the Alexander Payne film in which he played the lead role, and he'll once again have the chance to showcase his range here. Meanwhile, Robbins is one of those long-time veteran actors who we just do not see enough of lately, but between this and his role in Stuart Blumberg’s forthcoming “Thanks for Sharing,” it looks like we’ll be seeing more of him in the future.
There’s no release date set for Dan Schechter’s film, but lensing starts next month, so hopefully it will be done in time for a late-2013 release. [Variety]