"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.

"Brick" team reuniting for something really crazy, but hopefully great

If the survival of "Chuck" was really contingent on the ratings for last night's episode, as Deadline Hollywood and other sources claim, the creators at least put up a real winner.

With guest stars Swoozie Kurtz and Fred Willard, plus a mean Bengal tiger, it was just good, old-fashioned goofy, with more than enough romance thrown in to sweeten the deal. And the kicker with Ellie and Awesome in Africa points to a fantastic finish.

Word should come very soon on whether or not there will be a fourth season, but in the meantime, NBC has already made, in its first new series pickup, what would make the perfect leadin to "Chuck" for a spytastic Monday night.

J.J. Abrams of "Lost" and "Alias" has pitched a show called "Undercovers," about a married couple who just happen to be former top spies with the CIA. They get called back into duty (by Gerald McRaney, naturally) after a former co-worker goes missing while on the trail of a Russian arms dealer. Actually, it's probably too much like "Chuck" to pair the two, though I seriously doubt this new show will bring the funny as regularly or as well as "Chuck" does.

In other good TV news, FX has just announced that it has picked up a second season of "Justified," the series based on an Elmore Leonard short story and starring Timothy Olyphant as, well, pretty much the same character he played in "Deadwood," just in modern-day Kentucky (which, oddly enough, isn't all that far removed from the Old West.)

The show, like another new one I'm really digging, "Treme," is certainly on a slow boil when it comes to a running storyline, but it has plenty of personality, and I'll definitely keep tuning in to see where this all goes. The finale of season one, by the way, comes June 8.

All I've got besides that today, as the headline promised, is news about just what director Rian Johnson and co-conspirator Joseph Gordon-Levitt are up to now, and then a nifty George Clooney trailer to finish things off.

The duo first teamed up for easily one of my favorite films of the last 10 years or so, the high school film noir "Brick." If you haven't seen this one, just rent it already, and I guarantee you'll enjoy it. Next for Johnson came "The Brothers Bloom." The first time I saw this in the theater it just left me cold, but coincidentally enough, I just red boxed it again last weekend, and while the plot still doesn't quite add up, there's more than enough style along the way to make it at least an enjoyable failure (and Rinko Kikuchi is just an adorable hoot as Boom Boom.)

Now, he and Gordon-Levitt seem to have something entirely different in the works for their next movie, "Looper." The plot details so far are more than a little confusing, but as far as I can tell it's a piece of "dark sci-fi" about hit men who are sent back in time to find their victims. Sounds more than a little like the average Bruce Willis movie that will appear in February and make exactly no impression at all, but here's hoping that in the hands of these two, it turns into a whole lot more.

And finally, in an admittedly brief report because I'm just running way behind today, I'll leave you with the first trailer I know of for a flick I had never heard of until this morning, Anton Corbijn's "The American." Starring one George Clooney, it's about an assassin who gets one final case in Italy, and judging at least from this brief glimpse, it looks like the old-fashioned, low-tech kind of thriller that I can really get into. Enjoy the trailer for this one, keep an eye out for it in September, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.

The return of "Lawman" Oliphant and a first look at "Mad Men" season three

Before I get into the really pretty good TV news out there today, there are some movie tidbits that have to start off with more on the craziest of all, Zhang Yimou's (unnecessary?) remake of the Coens' "Blood Simple."

I know I should be against this from the outset, but I have to admit it sounds intriguing. In Zhang's vision of the movie, which will apparently be distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, the noir story will move from the Texas bar to a Chinese noodle shop in a desert where "the owner of the noodle shop's seemingly simple plan to murder his adulterous wife and her lover quickly spins out of control after the introduction of a gun into the lives of characters more accustomed to knives and swords."

"Tampopo" meets "Blood Simple"? I think I'm in. My only real reservation is that this is described as a different angle because it's a "thriller-comedy," but the Coens' flick is - of course - in its own way a very funny movie already.

In two other short notes, there should be another movie based on Christopher Buckley's works coming to theaters, and that can only be a good thing. As many will know, among Buckley's many satirical D.C. novels is "Thank You For Smoking," converted into the sharp movie by Jason Reitman.

And now it seems that Charlize Theron's company has adopted another of Buckley's novels for herself to star in (well, that's one good way to get work.) "Florence of Arabia" is about a State Dept. employee (to be played by Theron) who, after watching her friend marry the prince of a Middle East country and subsequently get executed, fights for equal rights for the women of that country.

Doesn't sound quite as funny as the other Buckley books I've read, but I'm sure there's more to it than that. And in slightly older but odd Buckley news, Whit Stillman, who directed one of my favorite flicks, "Metropolitan", and two others before disappearing for many years, is still listed as the director of another Buckley movie, based on his novel "Little Green Men," which I did read. Don't hold your breath for that one.

And finally, before I get to the news that will have to be considered great for any fans of "Deadwood," there will be another Dr. Seuss movie coming soon in the form of "The Lorax."

Given my current distaste for 3-D animation, which everything seemingly has to be by now and so this will be, I should probably dismiss this outright, but it's a classic tale, and until that ridiculous song at the end, "Horton Hears a Who" was actually a really good Dr. Seuss flick, so who knows? Besides, that image of the poor Lorax standing among the fallen Truffula trees just gets me every time.

OK, now on the really good stuff. It seems that FX has picked up something called “The Lawman,” based on a character introduced in the Elmore Leonard novella “Fire In The Hole,” to begin airing early next year.

And much better, Seth Bullock himself, Timothy Oliphant, will return from video-game-movie hell to play "Stetson-sporting contemporary U.S. marshal Raylan Givens, who finds himself punished with a permanent assignment to Kentucky, where he was reared." I doubt there will be any characters as colorful as Ian McShane's Al Swearsallthetime, but I like everything I've read from Leonard, so Sheriff Bullock walking a modern beat sounds great to me.

Don't forget that FX also has two of my current favorites coming back very soon. The second season of the motorcycle gang drama "Sons of Anarchy," which just got better and better last year, begins Tuesday, Sept. 8. Even better in terms of real anarchy, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" finally returns for its fifth season Thursday, Sept. 17. Friggin fantastic.

In one bit of other networks news that also only be called good, USA Network has picked up "Burn Notice" for a fourth season next summer, along with the freshman show that follows it, "Royal Pains."

As with another spy show I like even more, "Chuck," I was slow to pick up on the easy charm of "Burn Notice," but as the third season wraps up I'm now hooked. It hasn't been quite as good as season two, but it's still just about the best thing on TV now until the return of "Mad Men" (more on that below.) I've yet to even tune in for any of "Royal Pains" because, well, the idea of a show about a doctor to residents of the Hamptons just doesn't sound all that appealing to me. If I'm somehow wrong about this (after all, the show does now outdraw "Burn Notice," 7.3 million viewers to 7.1 million) please let me know.

And anyone who actually made it this far certainly deserves a reward, so here goes. Hitfix has put up a full gallery of "Mad Men" shots from the third season, which still seems like an eternity away at Aug. 16. Moving this back from its regular July return, though probably for some reason necessary, has just been agonizing, and I can't wait for it to finally begin anew. You can view the full gallery here, but I've included my two favorites, one of Robert Morse and John Slattery and another of the great January Jones as Bertie Draper. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.