Adapting Elmore Leonard for the big screen has a bit of a checkered history, from the good, such as Get Shorty and Out Of Sight, to the dreadful, such as The Big Bounce and Be Cool, but now they’re having another go with Freaky Deaky. Back in February Camilla Belle landed the main female role, and Variety reports that she’ll now be joined by Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser, and Craig Robinson.
Freaky Deaky is about two former activists and bomb-makers who use their explosive skills to con a drunk movie producer out of his fortune. William H. Macy has already committed to playing the movie producer, Woody Ricks. Matt Dillon is set for the lead role of Chris Mankowski, an LAPD bomb squad officer who uncovers the activists’ threat. Brendan Fraser will play one of the activists, called Skip Gibbs, who now works as a pyrotechnics artist on movie sets, while Craig Robinson will be Woody Ricks’ assistant, a former Black Panther.
Charles Matthau will direct Freaky Deaky from his own script. The movie will still be set in Detroit, although it will take place in the late 1980s, instead of 1974, as in Leonard’s original novel. Production is scheduled to start later this month in Michigan.