Film News from Empire Magazine (@empiremagazine)

Ben Gazzara, the character acting stalwart and stage star, has died at the age of 81.

He was born in New York in 1930, and caught the acting bug at the age of 11 when he saw a friend perform in a play at the Madison Square Boys Club. He joined up and began working, eventually finding his way to the Dramatic Workshop. He auditioned for Lee Strasberg’s famed Actors Studio, which helped shape his career alongside such notable fellow actors as Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger.

His big screen career included a wide variety of movies, including The Big Lebowski, Dogville, Inchon, The Spanish Prisoner and Todd Solondz’ Happiness. His fluent Italian helped him land roles in Italy, and he traded time between working in the US and overseas. Above all, however, he was best known in cinematic circles for his work with Nick Cassavetes, for whom he acted in the likes of Husbands and The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie.

On television, he was seen on the likes of Run For Your Life and Playhouse 90. He eventually graduated to directing episodes of such shows as Columbo.

But while he was known for his character roles on the screen, when it came to the theatre, he was an undisputed star and leading man. He was the original Brick in the first staging of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, and then left that production to stat in A Hatful Of Rain, which earned him a Tony Nomination. While his theatrical career had its ups and down, he accrued an impressive list of credentials.

His personal life was even more turbulent – married three times, he’s survived by his wife Elke Stuckmann and two daughters.

We’ve been following the slow, painful slog endured by puppet noir satire The Happytime Murders for ages now. And today it has popped back up on the cinematic radar, with word that Katherine Heigl is circling the female lead.

For anyone who doesn’t know about it, Happytime was cooked up back in 2008 by Brian (son of Jim) Henson as a strictly-for-adults take on puppet life. It’s set in a world where humans and their felt friends live side by side, but the puppets are treated as second-class citizens. Murder strikes the place as the former stars of once-popular kids’ show The Happytime Gang start to be killed one by one, and the only man (or Muppet) who can investigate is a washed-up private eye puppet, who ropes in his former partner at the LAPD.

Henson is directing from a script by Todd Berger, and the project has been sitting unloved in a box over at Lionsgate for a few years. Now, though, IM Global is spearheading selling it to foreign buyers to help raise the production funds, and attaching a name like Heigl’s (even if she hasn’t made some of the best movies) should help this thing get moving again.

We’re not sure what role Heigl will play, bit given that Cameron Diaz flirted with the idea of taking on the film a couple of years, there must be a choice human role in there somewhere.

This is the second film in a few days that Heigl has been linked to. She’s also attached to Face Blind, which will see her as a psychologist struck with a condition that means she can’t distinguish people by their faces. Which is inconvenient when a patient starts stalking her and her husband thinks she’s going nuts…

With the departure of Lily Collins, the producers of the new Evil Dead reboot have been hunting around for a replacement female lead. Now they have one, in the shape of Jane Levy.

She’s signing on as Mia, the Ash-but-not-Ash of this new take on Sam Raimi’s cult hit. Mia is a girl struggling with the aftermath of a drug overdose, and decides that some time away with friends in a remote cabin might just be what she needs to feel better.

Unfortunately, the gang of five (including recent hire Shiloh Fernandez) stumble on the Book Of The Dead and Mia starts to be bedevilled by nasty demonic types. And most of the others don’t realise that she’s telling the truth until it’s much too late…

Director Fede Alvarez has written this new version along with Rodo Sayagues, and Diablo Cody gave it a polish. With the cast finally starting to come together, the film may well start shooting next month, especially since it has to hit an April 12, 2013 release date in the US.

Levy is currently best known for her role on US sitcom Suburgatory (which is actually rather good). She previously had a short run on the American version of Shameless and will appear in Josh Schwartz’ Halloween comedy Fun Size and in Nobody Walks alongside John Krasinski.

It's been a couple of months since we've seen a trailer for The Hunger Games, but the team behind the film has been keeping the barrage of pic, poster and other related releases up to fill time during the gap. Now, to mark 50 days until the movie itself hits, the second full trailer has arrived, and it's chock-full of new footage. Take a look below.

In case there is anybody still left wondering what the film (adapted from Suzanne Collins' books) is about, Jennifer Lawrence stars as Katniss Everdeen, a young woman living in an apocalyptic, ruined future America. With the majority of its citizens living in poverty in rural Districts, she has to hunt to supplement her sister and mother's meagre rations. Then her sister is chosen for the Hunger Games, an annual contest that keeps the fractured country under the iron fist of the technologically advanced Capitol.

The Games pits youngsters from each of the Districts against each other in a battle to the death, so Katniss volunteers to take her sister's place and fight alongside Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). She'll have to outwit and outfight highly trained Tributes who have been preparing for the games her entire lives. And, as Katniss says in the new trailer, "24 go in, but only one comes out..."

This new promo is a chance to see several of the main cast: Elizabeth Banks, Donald Sutherland, Stanley Tucci, Liam Hemsworth and Lenny Kravitz all feature here.

We get the chance to see the whole thing on March 23.

As any die-hard thriller lover will tell you, Jo Nesbo is a pretty big deal. Heralded as the next Stieg Larsson years ago, only now are his novels being turned into films - including 2008's Headhunters, or to use its original name, Hodejegerne.

Released in his homeland of Norway and bought up by 50 different countries, Hodejegerne is now set to hit British shores, with a release date set for April 6.

Starring Aksel Hennie in the lead role of Roger Brown, the film tells the tale of a successful headhunter / art thief who meets his match when he steals a painting from a former mercenary, Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) - a man he's also seeking to set up as the head of a firm.

Today we've got a poster for you to enjoy, and without any further ado, here it is.

{Headhunters poster}

And before you ask, yes, yes indeed, it's already being lined up for a Hollywood remake. In fact, rights were bought by Summit Entertainment before the film had even hit cinemas in Norway.

Headhunters will be in cinemas April 6. 

James Wan and Leigh Wannell's bonkers supernatural horror Insidious was one of last year's most profitable films, with final box office at somewhere around a hundred times its meagre budget. Naturally then, there have been rumblings of a sequel ever since. All involved said they wouldn't do it unless they had a really good idea, but it seems that inspiration has struck, since Insidious 2 is now officially underway.

The first film saw Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson moving house to escape a haunting, only to find that the ghosts came along, because they were haunting the family and not the building. Along the loony way, we met a creepy old lady in a black wedding dress, and a demon puppet-maker with a fondness for Tiny Tim records.

Without wishing to get too spoilerific, the ending certainly leaves scope for more. Quite apart from the bizarre business with Wilson, we don't know what happened to young Ty Simpkins either. As with the best horror, it works to leave matters ambiguous, but there are definitely threads to pick up.

The Hollywood Reporter confidently says that the film will shoot this year for a release in 2013, and has a distribution set-up (FilmDistrict in the US; Alliance in Canada and Momentum Pictures in the UK; Sony everywhere else) already in place. It's more cautious about the creative team that will be involved though, saying only that director Wan and screenwriter Whannel are "in talks" to return. 

But Bloody Disgusting has a statement from Whannel suggesting that it's a full-on reunion (although there's still an "if" in there). "Insidious was the most fun project I've ever worked on," he says. "From start to finish it was an absolute joy... James and I both feel that we can mine more terror from the world we created and know that if we assemble every member of the original team, we will have an amazing continuation of the story for fans of the first film. See you in The Further.”

Nobody's yet saying whether we're likely to see Byrne and Wilson back again. We'll keep you posted - and if you're trying to keep busy in the meantime, read Wan and Whannel's Insidious webchat here to refresh your memory.

The storm has been approaching for a couple of years now, but it broke yesterday with DC announcing that Alan Moore's iconic graphic novel Watchmen is to finally get the franchise treatment. It's not strictly movie news (although there are possible implications) but we thought you might be interested...

The story dates back to a change of regime at DC in 2010. Despite the company's very public falling-out with the irascible Moore, DC's head honcho Paul Levitz was always adamant that Watchmen, at least in print form, was sacred ground not to be invaded. When Levitz stepped down, however, Watchmen was no longer sequestered by in-house defenders, and with Zack Snyder's movie propelling the book to the status of DC's all-time bestseller, the company's senior vice-president Dan DiDio made an expanded Watchmen universe a pet project.

Much speculation and rumour followed (largely fuelled by the alarmist fanboys at Bleeding Cool), but the result turns out to be seven inter-connected prequel comic mini-series, published weekly under the banner Before Watchmen, starting this summer.

Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets, Hellblazer) is writing the four-part Rorschach and the six-part Comedian. J Michael Straczynski (Amazing Spider-Man, Thor) gets four-part shots at Dr Manhattan and Nite Owl. Darwyn Cooke (Catwoman, New Frontier) is behind the four-issue Silk Spectre and the six-issue Minutemen. And Watchmen's original editor Len Wein is providing six issues of Ozymandias. Each issue will contain two pages of a new pirate story Curse Of The Crimson Corsair (again by Wein), and there'll also be a multi-authored Before Watchmen: Epilogue.

Original Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons is quoted in DC's press release cautiously wishing the project well. Moore though, true to form, was quick to denounce it, telling the New York Times, "It's completely shameless. I tend to take this latest development as confirmation that [DC] are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago. I don't want money; I just want it not to happen."

A defensive Straczynski confidently hit back, calling Moore's position "absolutely understandable and deeply flawed." He pointed out that "the Watchmen characters were variations on pre-existing characters created for the Charleton Comics universe."

"As far as I know, there weren't many prequels or sequels to Moby Dick," sniffed Moore. But Moore has spent much of the last decade writing The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (using characters created by Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, HG Wells, H Rider Haggard and so on), and Lost Girls (a pornographic team-up of Oz's Dorothy, Wonderland's Alice and Peter Pan's Wendy). Pot? Kettle?

"I don’t hear Alan suggesting that no one other than Shuster and Siegel should have been allowed to write Superman," says Straczynski. "Certainly Alan himself did this when he was brought on to write Swamp Thing, a seminal comics character created by Len Wein. The whole point of having great characters is the opportunity to explore them more deeply. That DC allowed these characters to sit on a shelf for over two decades as a show of respect is salutary, but there comes a time when good characters have to re-enter the world."

“It’s our responsibility as publishers to find new ways to keep all of our characters relevant,” said Didio. "“Collaborative storytelling is what keeps these fictional universes fresh.”

DC's press release calls Before Watchmen "As highly anticipated as it is controversial." Controversial? You don't say. Give us your thoughts in the comments below.

[[Poll624]]

You might think that Shiloh Fernandez would have had enough of hanging around in dangerous wooded areas after Red Riding Hood. But you would be mistaken. He’s jumped at the chance to snatch one of the lead roles in the reboot of The Evil Dead.

And the film could use some actors, especially since Lily Collins dropped out near the end of January.

The plot will essentially revisit the world of Sam Raimi’s 1981 cult original, though minus Bruce Campbell’s Ash. It finds a group of teens holed up in a cabin who discover the Book Of The Dead and (because it wouldn’t be a horror movie otherwise) unleash terrible demons they can’t control.

Fede Alvarez, who wrote the script with Rodo Sayagues and had it polished by Diablo Cody, is preparing to direct the film, though it’ll likely start later than the original planned March schedule.

As for Fernandez, he followed up Riding Hood with mystery thriller The East and has also worked on comedy drama Syrup. According to Variety, he’s just signed on to Killer Films’ Deep Powder, which he’ll probably shoot before going off to Evil Dead. Mo Ogrodnik is writing and directing that one, and is keeping the plot details to himself. Bet it involves snow, though… Unless it’s about washing powder.

How things change, part 4,532: Once upon a time (that time being the 1990s, and briefly again in 2006, though we don't like to think about that), Sharon Stone was the sexy stalker. Now, in Tony Kaye's new thriller Attachment, she will be the stalkee.

Stone has signed on to play a married woman who has an affair with a student. And because this is a sexual thriller, things don't go well once the relationship ends. Turns out her former paramour has been cribbing from both Fatal Attraction and Fear and, er, The Graduate, as he shows up dating her daughter and then begins to terrorise her family.

Christopher Denham wrote the script, and there's a plan in place for Kaye to kick off shooting in April. The producers at Panther Films will be taking the project to Berlin's European Film Market next week to drum up some sales.

Kaye already has one film that features students and "tachment" in it – that would be Adrien Brody educational drama Detachment, which will hit US screens in March, but has no set UK date yet. Stone has just shot action thriller The Mule and is currently at work on Lovelace alongside Amanda Seyfried and Peter Sarsgaard.

No one could accuse The Host's director Bong Joon-Ho of slacking when it comes to tracking down quality cast members for his English-language debut, Snow Piercer. His latest hire? Oscar nominee Octavia Spencer.

And with news of Spencer’s casting comes a few more details of what the sci-fi indie’s concept will be. Based on the 1970s French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, Snow Piercer is set in a future where the Earth has been devastated by a failed attempt to thwart global warming. A new Ice Age has killed off almost all life on the planet, and the only human survivors travel around the planet on the titular train, which is powered by a perpetual motion engine.

But life, as you might guess, is far from perfect in the various carriages, and a class system has evolved (though not necessarily the one you might expect, given that it’s a train). Soon there’s a revolt brewing…

Spencer is joining a cast that already includes Chris Evans, John Hurt and Tilda Swinton, alongside Korean actor Kang Ho Soong, one of the leads from The Host.

While Kelly Masterson wrote the latest draft, Bong has also worked on the script with producer Park Chan-Wook. The film will kick off shooting at the end of April. But before that, Spencer will report to the set of Diablo Cody’s still-untitled directorial debut, which starts production in March.

If you were Jim Sheridan, and your recent cinematic output included the critcally-mauled likes of Get Rich Or Die Tryin' and Dream House (as well as the much better received Brothers), we wouldn't blame you for wistfully wanting to re-visit a better time in your career. But digging up a film you wrote back in the 1990s seems like an odd idea. Still, Sheridan's going for it, developing a new take on Into The West.

The original, which Mike Newell brought to cinemas in 1992, saw the likes of Gabriel Byrne, Ellen Barkin and Brendan Gleeson in the tale of two young boys who escape the grit and grime of their Dublin council estate by heading out on an adventure to recover the mystical horse stolen from their pop (Byrne), once known as King Of The Travellers. At the time, we said, "its heady mix of Irish myth and gritty realism will effortlessly capture the imaginations of all ages."

Now, it would seem Sheridan is looking to direct this one himself, to re-capture those imaginations, and to give the story more of a chance to be seen across the pond. There's no word yet on what changes he might make, and whether it'll tell the same story or follow a new, related yarn. What is known right now is that he's nabbed 50,000 in development money from the Irish Film Board.

Sheridan has been developing several projects, including Black Mass about recently-captured Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger and a drama called Sheriff Street.  

Gah! Don'tcha just hate it when you're a legal type and you're suddenly forced to work together with your ex on a case? We know we do.... It sounds like the recipe for a frothy romantic comedy, possibly starring Katherine Heigl and some up-and-coming studly type, but in reality it's the basis for a new suspense thriller starring Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall.

Boy A director John Crowley is directing, working from a script by Steve "Eastern Promises" Knight. The film doesn't have a title yet*, which usually makes us question their commitment to sparkle motion, but we'll let it slide for now as there is at least a basic plot online.

As mentioned above, Hall and Bana will play former lovers who are thrown back together (professionally, at least) when they're paired as part of the defence team in a high-profile terrorism case. Soon, loyalties and being tested and nerves are being frayed. Oh, and PR cliches are being spouted, such as these by Focus Features bosses James Schamus and Andrew Karpen in a statement about the movie picked up by Variety: "Working Title and John Crowley have not only crafted a nail-biting thriller, but an emotional roller-coaster as well – one that speaks to the heart of the human condition in our time."

Crowley is set to start shooting this April in the UK. Bana was last seen in Hanna and is hearing up to shoot Elvis & Nixon. He's also just finished making Blackbird. Hall will next show up in Lay The Favourite.

*We'd suggest Brief Re-Encounter, but that seems too silly.

Shocking as it might seem to some given her career, The Help actually marked the first time Viola Davis scored the leading role in a film. But following her awards-laden performance (which may yet land her an Oscar), she’s now firmly at the top of the list for many casting directors, and has landed two plum parts, one in Ender’s Game and one in Beautiful Creatures.

We’ll tackle Creatures first: backed by Warner Bros. and Alcon, it’s been adapted from Margaret Stohl-Kami Garcia's book about two teens dealing with a curse that has bedevilled the girl’s family for generations.

Davis has snagged one of the leads, a librarian who happens to be a friend of the boy, who loves him like a mother and looks out for him.

Richard LaGravenese wrote the script and aims to start directing the film this April in New Orleans. If it’s successful, the studio is hoping it’ll spawn a new franchise, and has obtained the rights to the other books in the trilogy, Beautiful Darkness and Beautiful Chaos.

Ender’s Game, of course is also adapted from a novel – Orson Scott Card’s to be exact. Wolverine director Gavin Hood cracked the adaptation last year, and he’s already recruited Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Ben Kingsley and Harrison Ford to star in the story of young Ender Wiggin. He’s a preciously talented youngster recruited by humanity to fight off an insect-like alien race. He and other young people are sent to a military training academy where Davis will be a psychologist who both designs the games that test the recruits and oversees their mental wellbeing.

According to Variety, Game will shoot first with Creatures set to follow later in the year once the rest of the cast has been assembled.

In a time when studios are increasingly worried about risky, challenging prospects for films, it’s heartening to see someone looking to change things up a little. Kudos, then, to Joel Edgerton and Jessica Chastain for signing on to the intriguing double bill of The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby: His and The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby: Hers.

No, we haven’t suffered some huge copy and paste error – the two standalone films will tell one story, but from a pair of perspectives. Ned Benson wrote the two scripts and is on to direct both movies.

The spine of the drama will follow a married couple in New York who hit a rough patch in their relationship. Edgerton will play a restaurant owner, and Chastain will be his wife, who decides to go back to college. There’s a chance that William Hurt could also sign on, as he’s in talks for the movie.

Myriad Pictures is the company backing the films, and the company’s CEO seems enthused by the idea, as expressed in his statement, picked up by Deadline: “Ned has created rich and engaging characters. They are complex, and it is unique to have two different scripts to tell the story. It doesn’t matter which script you read first, you absolutely want to read the other perspective.” Still, he admits that there will be challenges. “We have to make both films work on their own, both for the buyers but also for the audiences. Together these films will describe a fully, more complete look at these characters and their lives.”

UPDATE: Vin's drip-feed of Riddick images continues on his Facepage, and while the last one looked like a candid backstage shot, this one seems like it could be an actual still. Not that it shows vast interstellar panoramas or anything: he's peering over a rock. "First time I posted about Riddick was back in 2009," says Vin. "All I was doing was opening up about my passion - film. So this picture of our 2012 production of Riddick is a cool victory for all of us... it shows that studios can be influenced by your voice."

We’ve been treated to months of Vin Diesel posting artwork and updates about the still-untitled sequel to The Chronicles Of Riddick on to his Facebook page. But now that the film has been shooting for a little while, he’s finally able to raise the stakes and has put up a picture of himself in full Riddick regalia, which was first spotted by the gang at Collider. You can take a gander below.

Now that the movie’s financial issues finally seem to be a thing of the past, writer/director David Twohy and his team have been hard at work getting the thing made. The plot finds Richard B. Riddick betrayed by his own kind and left for dead on an inhospitable planet swarming with alien predators. But, as we all know, that’s where the man tends to thrive and he’s soon turning the tables on a group of bounty hunters and forming an elaborate revenge scheme. And once he’s had his vengeance, he plans to return to his home planet of Furya to save it from destruction. Then it’ll be time for cucumber sandwiches and a pot of t… Okay, the last bit might not be quite true.

Along with Mr Vin himself, the cast includes the likes of Katee Sackhoff (still best known as Starbuck from the rebooted Battlestar Galactica), Noland Gerard Funk, Jordi Molla and, reprising the role of Vaako, Karl Urban.

We’ve yet to learn when Universal will release the movie, but it’ll most likely be some time next year.

For his next trick, Quantum Of Solace director Marc Foster will pull The War Magician out of the development hat, where it's been sitting gathering dust.

Adapted from David Fisher's book, Magician is the true story of Jasper Maskelyne, who brought stage magic to warfare during World War II where he helped the Allies win through a series of daring and spectacular tricks. Among his accomplishments? Making the Suez Canal vanish, hiding the port of Alexandria's harbour and fooling General Rommel with a phantom army, a move that led to his defeat. Maskeylene's techniques and inventions are still used to this day.

It's a compelling concept with a great leading man role at its centre. No surprise, then, that Tom Cruise snapped it up a few years ago via his deal with Paramount. But it never came to fruition before Cruise's contract fell through and the option ran out on the tome.

Now Lonetree Entertainment has the rights, and has put Forster in charge of bringing it to life. There's always a chance Cruise could come back to star...

Forster will next deliver zombie conflict chronicle World War Z to cinemas, though we'll have to wait until January 2013 to see that one over here.

When you think of female action stars, chances are your mind flits to, say, Angelina Jolie, or Kate Beckinsale or even, more recently, Haywire's Gina Carano. We doubt it heads straight to Kate Hudson. But the actress, better known for her rom-coms, is looking to change all that with Everly.

Director Joe Lynch crafted the idea for the thriller before handing the concept over to Yale Hannon to crank out the script, which ended up on the Black List. Everly sees a down-on-her-luck woman (Hudson) fighting off assassins hired by her ex, who happens to be a nasty mob boss. So it's basically a wacky rom-com, but with lots more punching. All right, all right... It's a thriller.

The tweak this time is that the story is set entirely in one room, which makes us hope Lynch has lots of good ideas to make it work visually. Producers Adam Ripp and Rob Paris think so, and they're also convinced that Hudson can switch things up.

"When we heard that Kate wanted to make the transition into an action star, we knew we had found our Everly," they said in a statement picked up by the Hollywood Reporter. "The physicality and intensity of this role will be transformative for her." We'll see...

Cast your mind back to last August, when it was reported that Jesse Eisenberg would be teaming up with Submarine director Richard Ayoade for his next film, inspired by Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Double. Well, we’re sliding that news from the “Rumour” to the “Confirmed” section of our big news tracker board, as he’s now locked in, with Mia Wasikowska on to co-star.

The film won’t be a direct adaptation of the novella, but it will plough a similar furrow: a mundane man (Eisenberg) is driven to near breakdown status when his doppleganger shows up in his life. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Ayoade is promising something funny, frightening and dream-like, a reflection on loneliness and our need to be loved.

He co-wrote the film with Avi Korine (who hatched the original idea) and is set to shoot in Blighty sometime in the spring or summer this year. Film4 is throwing in some of the funding, and the producers are looking to drum up sales at this month’s European Film Market in Berlin.

Wasikowska will next be seen in Stoker and John Hillcoat’s Wettest County, while Eisenberg is at work on magician heist pic Now You See Me. And Ayoade has recently stepped back in front of the camera, having just shot action comedy Neighborhood Watch alongside Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill.

As director Atom Egoyan puts the pieces (and the funding) together for Devil's Knot, the new dramatic film based on the West Memphis Three case, he's turned to someone he's worked with before to fill one of the leading roles: Colin Firth.

The actor, who co-starred in Egoyan's Where The Truth Lies, is on board to play private investigator Ron Lax, who has been a key crusader for the three men at the centre of the case. He agreed to help build the defense evidence for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelly Jr after they were accused of, and imprisoned for, the murder of three eight-year-old boys in 1993. The trio served 17 years in prison (with Echols on death row) before being freed after a long campaign to prove their innocence.

Last December, Reese Witherspoon was cast as Pam Hobbs, the mother of one of the victims, who started out thinking that the three were guilty, but eventually came to regard them as wrongly accused.

While The Exorcism Of Emily Rose team of Scott Derrickson and Paul Boardman adapted the first draft of the script from Mara Leveritt's 2003 book Devil's Knot: The True Story Of The West Memphis Three, Egoyan has been working with Boardman on a rewrite and they're now looking for the cash to get it started.

Let’s get one thing clear from the start: Quentin Tarantino is not involved with this film, though it has his blessing. No, writer/director Dan Schecter is the man behind this adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s Switch, and he’s got Martha Marcy May Marlene star John Hawkes and Yasiin Bey (the artist formerly known as rapper-turned-actor Mos Def) ready to star.

Hawkes and Bey will play the younger versions of Louis Gara and Ordell Robbie, as played respectively by Robert De Niro and Samuel L. Jackson in Tarantino’s film, which itself was adapted from Leonard’s Rum Punch.

Schechter took a gamble writing a script based on The Switch, which Leonard published in 1978, and sent it to Michael Siegel, who happens to be the author’s representative. Impressed with his work, the pair handed him the film rights and agreed to be producers. Young filmmakers take heart: it can happen!

The plot, set 15 years before the events in Brown, finds Louis and Ordell teaming up to kidnap Mickey Dawson, a woman married to a corrupt Detroit real estate magnate. But when her husband refuses to pay the ransom, the crooks work with the wife to get her revenge. Schecter is aiming to start shooting the film in May.

Hawkes has been winning plaudits at this year’s Sundance Film Festival for his leading role in The Surrogate, about a disabled poet who seeks to lose his virginity with a professional sex surrogate (Helen Hunt). He’ll also show up this year in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln. Bey most appeared on US crime drama Dexter.