1 .”Out Of Sight” (1998)
So we love “Jackie Brown,” but we might love “Out Of Sight” just a little bit more, not least because it stands, to us, as the most definitive example of Leonard on-screen. Terrific script by “Get Shorty” writer Scott Frank? Check. Cameo from Michael Keaton as Ray Nicolette, tying it together with the other masterpiece? Check. A setting that encompasses both of Leonard’s traditional stomping grounds, of Florida, and Detroit? Check. And most importantly, a cast of unforgettable characters double-crossing each other in a cracking plot of sex, violence and whip-smart dialogue (all directed with a career-reviving zeal by Steven Soderbergh)? Double check. A deceptively tricky timeline (masterfully reassembled by veteran editor Anne Coates, whose credits include “Lawrence Of Arabia“) lays it out; bank robber Jack Foley (George Clooney, in the part that set the stage for the decade and more of great work to come, as he bounced back from the disaster of “Batman & Robin“) has busted out of jail, taking Federal Marshal Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez, never again even half as good as she is here) hostage in his trunk as he does so. He’s got a final gig in mind; pinching diamonds from toupeed white-collar criminal Richard Ripley (Albert Brooks), but former prison-mate Snoop (Don Cheadle) has designs on the same score too. With Sisco on his tail, can Jack keep his mind on the job? Or might he have found something more important? Frank and Soderbergh keep the narrative moving propulsively, but find plenty of time to stop and catch breath with a cast of characters that might be Leonard’s finest (including Steve Zahn‘s hapless Glenn, Ving Rhames‘ loyal Buddy, Catherine Keener‘s magician’s assistant Adele, Luis Guzman‘s escaped con Chino, Isaiah Washington‘s sinister Kenneth, and even a one-scene wonder from Viola Davis). The director, relishing his second chance after a string of under-performing pictures, gives the film a New Wave pop, but there’s a darkness and sadness here too that underlays the laugh-out-loud moments without undermining them. It’s a goddamn masterpiece, one of the best crime pictures of the last few decades, and to our mind, the finest Leonard adaptation we’ve seen to date. [A+]
Also Out There: We’ve run down all of the major movies that got a theatrical release somewhere in the world, or at least played a festival, but there are a lot more out there, many which ended up on TV. Among them, the Leonard-penned western TV movie “Desperado” starring Alex McArthur, which got a number of sequels over the next few years, while the decidedly lesser made-for-television sequel “High Noon, Part II: The Return Of Will Kane” (starring Lee Majors, of all people) had preceded it in 1980.
His novel “Glitz” got an adaptation on the small screen starring Jimmy Smits in 1988, as did the mostly forgotten “Split Images” in 1992, while Tom Selleck top-lined “Last Stand At Saber River” in 1997. By then, Leonard was hot again thanks to “Get Shorty,” and a few other of his novels ended up on the small screen that same year: “Pronto,” starring Peter Falk and James Le Gros (the latter as Marshal Raylan Givens, the same role that Timothy Olyphant would later make famous in “Justified“), and “Gold Coast,” starring David Caruso, and directed by a trying-to-redeem-himself-for-“Cat Chaser” Peter Weller. More recently, there have been a couple of short films, too: the Oscar-nominated “The Tonto Woman,” directed by “Harry Brown” helmer Daniel Barber, and “Sparks,” by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
There have also been a few long-form TV adaptations over the last couple of decades. First up was “Maximum Bob,” starring Beau Bridges as Leonard’s eccentric right-wing Florida judge. Barry Sonnenfeld, straight off “Men In Black” and “Get Shorty,” directed the pilot, and it’s actually a lot of fun, but it only lasted a handful of episodes. The same fate sadly met “Karen Sisco,” a 2003 series that saw Carla Gugino pick up the mantle dropped by Jennifer Lopez as the Marshal from “Out Of Sight,” with Robert Forster perfectly placed to replace Dennis Farina as her father. Backed again by Danny De Vito‘s Jersey Films, it’s a really good little show, but sadly was cancelled before the first season was through.
Now, of course, there’s “Justified,” and through four seasons on FX (particularly once it got past the patchier first one), it’s become one of the most definitive versions of Elmore’s universe on screen. Only the show’s pilot has many ties to Raylan Givens’ literary origins, but creator Graham Yost and his writing teams have perfectly captured Leonard’s voice, with the result that each new episode feels like a new Leonard story. Each season feels like it’s going to be hard to top (Margo Martindale‘s season two villain felt at the time like an impossible peak to surpass), but it’s continued to be one of the best dramas on TV with no little thanks to the great performances by Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins.
There’s more on the way, too. USA are developing a pilot based on Leonard’s short story “When The Women Came Out To Dance,” starring “Miss Bala” breakout Stephanie Sigman, while “Supporting Characters” director Daniel Schechter has wrapped a version of “Jackie Brown” precursor novel “The Switch,” starring John Hawkes and Mos Def in the roles originally taken by Robert De Niro and Samuel L Jackson (with Jennifer Aniston and Tim Robbins also on board). There’s lots more that’s untapped too (among those never made were a version of “Cuba Libre,” one of his best books, written by the Coen Brothers, and an adaptation of “Tishomongo Blues,” that would have marked Don Cheadle‘s directorial debut and starred Matthew McConaughey), so there’s little sign of Leonard drying up onscreen any time soon.
And to close off: Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules for Good Writing:
1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”…he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
