There have been some very good adaptations of my books: Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Jackie Brown [based on Leonard's novel Rum Punch] and before that Hombre with Paul Newman.
Numerous films have been made of his work, including Get Shorty, Out of Sight, and Rum Punch, which became Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, with the latest, Life of Crime – inspired by The Switch – out in September.
The author of acclaimed crime novels Get Shorty, Out of Sight and LaBrava, Leonard would wake at five every morning and write for two hours before leaving for work, selling his first story, the western Trail of the Apache, in 1951.
Many of his books became Hollywood hits, including Get Shorty, Out of Sight, and Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, based upon his Rum Punch.
Westerns as a literary genre still lack respectability, but the craft and energy of Leonard's crime novels, which include Get Shorty, Out of Sight and LaBrava, eventually made them impossible to ignore.
That is why the movies inspired by Leonard's fiction (a slew of disasters plus the odd success, like "Get Shorty," "Out of Sight," and "Jackie Brown," which was based on "Rum Punch") struggle to match his equilibrium.
"Can you help bail Shorty out of jail?" means "I need a drink".
Like "Get Shorty," "Out of Sight" and "Hombre," "Tishomingo Blues" has immense cinematic possibilities.
Like the Leonard classics "Get Shorty," "Out of Sight" and "Hombre," "Tishomingo Blues" has a somewhat unexpected ending.
There had been 46 novels and nine screenplays, from which had come 21 films which Leonard dismissed as A-grade crap except for "Get Shorty", "Out of Sight" and "Jackie Brown".
Once he was invited to sit at the table we ended up with films like "Get Shorty," "Out of Sight" and "Jackie Brown," not to mention the fine television show "Justified".
