Project not to be confused with Willis’ 2001 crime caper of the same name…
Deadline’s Mike Fleming is hearing that Bruce Willis is to produce and star in an adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel ‘Bandits,’ with screenwriter Mitch Glazer (‘Rock the Kasbah,’ ‘Great Expectations’) on board to adapt the script.
Published back in 1978, the book is officially described as follows:
“Working at his brother-in-law’s New Orleans funeral home isn’t reformed jewel thief Jack Delaney’s idea of excitement — until he’s dispatched to a leper’s hospital to pick up a corpse that turns out to be very much alive … and under the care of a beautiful, radical ex-nun in designer jeans. The “deceased” is the one-time squeeze of a Nicaraguan colonel who’s ordered her dead for trying to “infect” him, and Sister Lucy’s looking to spirit the young woman away from his guns and goons. Plus Lucy’s getting ideas about spiriting away some of the colonel’s millions as well — and someone with Jack Delaney’s talents could come in very handy indeed.”
Randall Emmett and George Furla will finance, and produce the film with Lee Stollman and Ellen Goldsmith-Vein of The Gotham Group.
Willis was developing an adaptation of ‘Bandits’ back when it was published but the rights lapsed. The rights were then acquired, along with the rights to three other Leonard novels, by Quentin Tarantino, who let the others go after he turned Leonard’s Rum Punch into ‘Jackie Brown.’