Writer, Producer Working on 'Jackie Brown' Prequel

Elmore Leonard is one of the best crime writers ever. Period. He's also written some damn good westerns in his 60-year career. His dialogue is probably the best single aspect about anything he does, and even at 84, he's still crankin' 'em out at about a novel a year. Not bad for a guy who handwrites everything. His movies have been hit or miss. Get Shorty, Out of Sight and 3:10 to Yuma are among the good; Be Cool, Stick, and The Big Bounce are among the bad. Then there's Jackie Brown, which comes from his novel Rum Punch. There's a prequel to that book, The Switch, which is now being tranformed into a movie. Worst Previews reports that Daniel Schecter is writing it and that Michael Siegel, who previously produced Be Cool, back in that role. Quentin Tarantino? Not yet, and probably not at all, though the producer apparently would like QT's input. Well, why wouldn't he? There's no guarantee he'll return, and being a prequel, it kind of rules out Robert De Niro and Samuel L. Jackson, so I doubt it would have much interest to Tarantino at this stage. Then again, here's Tarantino speaking about the author in an old interview:

"He was probably the biggest influence on my life: I have been reading Leonard since I was 14 and got caught stealing his novel The Switch from K-Mart. I got in huge trouble. I was grounded all summer long. But I was so pissed off that I didn't manage to get the book, that two days later I went back and stole it proper."

We'll keep you posted on its development but we're probably a couple years away from seeing it materialize on screen.