For six decades, Elmore Leonard has been sitting at his writing desk, first in Detroit, then in the suburbs, creating robberies and murders for books and movies. Hollywood has tried many times to translate Leonard’s work from page to screen: Get Shorty, Out of Sight, two versions of 3:10 to Yuma. Leonard has written several screenplays too, and worked on the recent, short-lived ABC television series Karen Sisco.
Tonight, another television network ”” FX this time ”” takes a shot at bringing Elmore’s World to life. Leonard himself is an executive producer of Justified, but he says there are a whole bunch of those, and he doesn’t have script approval.
But Leonard’s happy. He’s met the writers, and they’re keeping their source close at hand.
“They said, ‘We all have this little plastic bracelet on that says WWED ”” What Would Elmore Do?’ ” Leonard says. “It seems to me that they sound like my writing.”
Read or listen to it all and put FX’s “Justified” on your list for possible television shows. We thought the first show as very good indeed–KSH (Hat tip:Elizabeth).
I think the premiere was O.K., but I like Sons of Anarchy better.