This is starting to sound good: Dealine is reporting that Jennifer Aniston and Dennis Quaid are in serious talks to join Dan Schechter’s film version of Elmore Leonard’s THE SWITCH.
It had previously been announced that Mos Def (16 BLOCKS, DEXTER) and John Hawkes (WINTER’S BONE, MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE) were on board as Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara, a pair of crooks that kidnap the wife of a wealthy real estate developer. Things get tricky when the husband opts not to pay. But Ordell and Louis get to know the wife and decide to join forces with her to make life miserable for said hubby.
Quiad would play the husband and Aniston would play…you guessed it, the wife.
Daniel Schechter wrote the screenplay is slated to direct. This is a big step up for him. His only previous directorial job was the indie film GOODBYE BABY. He has another film, SUPPORTING CHARACTERS, in the can. Not many folk go from budgets of less than one million to films of this level. The casting makes total sense. Both Def and Hawkes are smaller names that have built a reputation for delivering the goods and Aniston and Quaid are bigger names that could use some critical praise. Each has name value and some success in the past, but neither is seen as major Hollywood talent today.
The characters Ordell and Louis have already appeared on the big screen in Quentin Tarantino’s JACKIE BROWN, which was based on Leonard’s RUM PUNCH. In that film, Samuel L. Jackson was Ordell and Robert De Niro was Louis. As one might suspect, they are younger in THE SWITCH.
