"The Switch" - the "Jackie Brown" prequel!

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"Winter's Bone" and "Martha Marcy May Marlene" star John Hawkes and Yasiin Bey (aka rapper turned actor Mos Def) are going to be starring in a "Jackie Brown" prequel playing the younger versions of Robert De Niro and Samuel L. Jackson's characters respectively.

Before you get too excited, no, Quentin Tarantino doesn't have anything to do with this.

Writer/director Dan Schechter ("Supporting Characters"), will be helming based on an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's "The Switch" (Tarantino's "Jackie Brown" was based off of Leonard's "Rum Punch").

Set 15 years before the events of "Rum Punch," an Amazon synopsis of "The Switch" describes the book as this: "Ordell Robbie (Sam Jackson's character in the original film) and Louis Gara (De Niro's) hit it off in prison, where they were both doing time for grand theft auto. Now that they're out, they're joining forces for one big score. The plan is to kidnap the wife of a wealthy Detroit developer and hold her for ransom. But they didn't figure the lowlife husband wouldn't want his lady back. So it's time for Plan B and the opportunity to make a real killing -- with the unlikely help of a beautiful, ticked-off housewife who's hungry for a large helping of sweet revenge."

According to Variety, Schecter adapted the novel on spec without Leonard's permission -- a huge risk. But so impressed was the author and his longtime rep, they granted the young filmmaker the rights. They've even come on board as producers.

This prequel to "Jackie Brown" was announced in 2010 and clearly the producers came through with their intentions.

Both Hawkes and yasiin bey are talented actors, and the story sounds like a lot of fun, but Elmore Leonard adaptations have a very mixed reputation. Those that aren't made by directors like Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh (Out of Sight), James Mangold (3:10 To Yuma) or Barry Sonnenfeld (Get Shorty) tend not to be so great. Dan Schechter has only made one other film, 2007's Goodbye Baby, so we'll just have to wait and see if he has the goods to pull this off.