"Jackie Brown" prequel in the works, but so far at least, without QT

In a word, the "Chuck" finale: Awesome. But no Buy More? Sheesh.

And I know I'm probably almost completely alone here, but "Jackie Brown" has always (or at least since it was made, of course) been my favorite Quentin Tarantino movie.

Better than "Pulp Fiction"? Better than "Inglourious Basterds," which I rank as my favorite movie of all of 2009? Yep. There's just something about the writing, the pacing and the characters that make it great, and a movie that I go back and watch on DVD about once a year or so (but it's not the best Elmore Leonard work on the big screen, an honor that will always go to "Out of Sight" in my book.)

So, a prequel focusing on the origin of the relationship of Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara, played in "Jackie Brown" by Samuel L. Jackson and Robert De Niro, would be great news, right? Well, perhaps, but not so fast.

First of all, so far at least, QT has nothing to do with this. The project is an adaptation of the Leonard novel "The Switch," and the screenplay's been written by someone named Daniel Schechter, whose directorial debut, "Goodbye Baby," made the film festival circuit, and produced by Michael Siegel, who, with both "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Be Cool" on his rap sheet, isn't exactly a clean character.

The movie, as is the book it's based on, would be called "The Switch," and Elmore Leonard has signed on as an executive producer, though as yet there's no director or studio attached to this. In the novel, Robbie and Gara meet in prison, and once out, they join forces for one big score that finds them kidnapping the wife of a wealthy Detroit developer. When the husband refuses to pay the ransom for his wife's return, Ordell and Louis are forced to reconceive their plan, and the angry housewife uses the ex-cons to get her revenge.

A Leonard movie set in Detroit, like much of "Out of Sight"? I'm in. So as they seek to recast the younger Robbie and Gara, why not Don Cheadle, who was so great as Snoopy Miller in Steven Soderbergh's flick? As for the young Louis, who knows? As much as I hated "Iron Man 2," I'd still certainly put in a vote for Sam Rockwell.

But who knows if any of this will ever even happen. In the meantime, an ounce of research on my part turned up a bit about "Goodbye Baby," and it indeed doesn't sound half bad. I thought about embedding the trailer from YouTube, but it just has the most obnoxious voice over on it that ruins the whole thing. Instead, I'd recommend visiting the official site and watching the much more enjoyable version there.

Best as I can tell, it centers on a young woman (Christine Evangelista) who wants to make it as a standup comic in NYC, and with co-stars like Kevin Corrigan, Alan Ruck, Jerry Adler and the great Donnell Rawlings from "Chappelle's Show," it has as many funny people in it as Judd Apatow's disappointing movie of the same name.

Anyways, it coincidentally enough is set to come out on DVD next Tuesday, June 1 (at least according to Amazon), and I at least will be renting it from the Netflix. And with that I have to get ready for work. Peace out.