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John Hawkes Will Play Robert De Niro’s Character in Jackie Brown Prequel

Actor John Hawkes attends
Photo: Jemal Countess/Getty Images

John Hawkes and Yasiin Bey (you trained yourself not to call him Mos Def anymore, right?) are set to star in an adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s 1978 novel The Switch (now sans the “The”), a predecessor to Rum Punch, the book Quentin Tarantino adapted into Jackie Brown. Relative newbie Dan Schechter will direct, after writing a spec script that pleased Leonard enough to get him to join as a producer. Most thrillingly, Hawkes and Bey will play fifteen-years-younger versions of Robert De Niro’s stoner ex-con Louis Gara and Samuel L. Jackson’s imminently quotable Ordell Robbie from Tarantino’s film.

John Hawkes Will Play Robert De Niro’s Character in Jackie Brown Prequel