Earlier this month, we reported that John Hawkes, Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def), and Ty Burrell had joined Dan Schechter's adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel, Switch.  Deadline is now reporting that Jennifer Aniston and Dennis Quaid have joined the crime drama, which takes place 15 years before Jackie Brown (which was based on Leonard's novel, Rum Punch). The story centers on a jilted housewife (Aniston) who's kidnapped by ex-cons Louis Gara and Ordell Robbie (Hawkes and Bey, respectively; the characters were played by Robert De Niro and Samuel L. Jackson in Jackie Brown).  When her crooked real-estate developer husband (Quaid) sees this as an opportunity to get rid of her, he refuses to pay the ransom, and the housewife decides to enlist Gara and Robbie in order to get revenge.  Production on the movie is set to begin in May.Switch isn't strictly a prequel since Leonard tends to reuse his characters (Michael Keaton played Ray Nicolette in Jackie Brown and Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight).  Let's just hope that this spin-off/prequel works better than the Get Shorty sequel, Be Cool.  Hit the jump for the synopsis of Leonard's The Switch.Here's the synopsis for Elmore Leonard's The Switch (I assumed the movie dropped the definite article so it wouldn't be confused with the terrible Jason Bateman-Jennifer Aniston comedy):

Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara 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. [Amazon]

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