Bruce Willis (Looper) and screenwriter Mitch Glazer (Rock the Kashbah) have teamed up to make an adaptation of Elmore Leonards’s Bandits according to Deadline.

The story is a dark comedy set in New Orleans and follows Jack Delaney, who will be played by Willis, an ex-con working in his brother’s funeral home. He meets a lapsed nun who wants to smuggle a young Nicaraguan woman with leprosy into America. The woman’s former lover is a militia colonel looking to kill her for possibly infecting him. Jack tries to play both sides to save the woman and take the colonel’s ransom money.

Willis originally optioned the rights to the story when the book was published in 1987. Once they lapsed, Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained) had the rights. Since they became available, Willis made a point to pick them back up and brought on Glazer to write the script. Willis previously made a 2001 film that had the same name that wasn’t based on Leonard’s work.  His books have been adapted into some of the most popular crime films, like Get Shorty, Jackie Brown and Out of Sight. 

Glazer is currently working on his second directing project, Magic City, in which Willis is starring with Bill Murray. No release date has been announced for either film.