I once found myself on bar stool in Hollywood seated next to the writer Elmore Leonard, eventually striking up a conversation I told him how much I enjoyed his work and of my own desire to write but that my spelling and grammar was so bad I never bothered to start. He looked me up and down with disgust and said, “That’s got nothing to do with writing.” He finished his drink and left me with those words.  Elmore Leonard freed me that day and set me on the path of a writing life.

What I didn’t have was any experience writing in Hollywood or a road map of how to go about getting such knowledge. That is what Lawrence Meyers new book, Inside the TV Writer’s Room, does; it sets one free onto an honest road of what it takes to write TV in Hollywood. The book talks directly to you from the inside out and lets you know it’s okay to be yourself. In fact, the book insist that you be yourself and guides you in finding your own voice.

From the start, you know you’re not reading another book by some hack TV writer whose credits are two episodes of Gilligan’s Island when in the introduction; Mr. Meyers challenges the reader with this opening: (more…)

Tuesday was the finale of what I’ve come to believe is the best show on TV: “Justified.” I say that not because I’m enamored of the lead, Timothy Olyphant – and who would not love that hat? — but because of the show’s iconoclastic portrayal of the South. 

Hollywood has always stereotyped the South as full of ignorant rednecks and racists, and the Mason Dixie line became synonymous for Yankees like me, especially dark-skinned Latinas, as an area to avoid. Nevertheless, I met my husband forty years ago in the deepest of the South — Florida — and had an opportunity to form my own opinion. 

I learned that the N- word was routinely used by blacks and whites to describe any black and I was probably called a half-breed “spic” behind my back. That didn’t bother me, and as the years passed my in-laws grew up, so did the South.  One thing I did note was that none of the Southerners I met had any resemblance to the Hollywood boobs in the movies or on TV. They were bright, articulate and romantic. My husband reminded me that some of the best American literature is by Southerners and about the South.  (more…)

Fox’s FX channel has a history of pushing the boundaries of “free cable” programming, with shows such as Nip/Tuck, The Shield, Rescue Me, Dirt, Damages, Sons of Anarchy, The League, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. But although “edgy” material dominates FX’s original programming, the values and ideas of the shows are often rather laudable. It’s a technique many TV producers have adopted from 1970s genre films and perfected in recent years: adding titillating content to very traditional genre material that often reinforces values usually thought of as conservative.

The latest example of this approach by FX is the new series Justified. Produced by Graham Yost (Speed, Boomtown, The Pacific) and based on a novel by Western and crime novel master Elmore Leonard (“Three-Ten to Yuma,” Mr. Majestyk, Get Shorty, Out of Sight), Justified stars Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood) as a U.S. Marshall, Raylan Givens, exiled to his hometown area in Eastern Kentucky after his questionable killing of a mobster in Miami. 

Givens is a straightforward hero without any phony psychological complexity, which in contemporary crime dramas generally serves to undermine the heroic nature of such characters and suggest that heroism is passé, no longer possible in a world in which moral relativism is not an assumption but somehow has become a fact. This is an important point—note the show’s title. Despite any ironies that may be intended, the implication is clear: there is good, and there is evil, and we are justified in making the distinction and acting on it. That’s what Raylan Givens does. (more…)

From a short story by crime legend Elmore Leonard comes Justified, a new FX drama written and produced by showrunner Graham Yost,  best known as the writer of the 1994 action movie Speed. Starring Deadwood alum Timothy Olyphant, Justified takes us to the wilds of modern day Kentucky and follows the exploits of Olyphant’s character, Marshall Raylan Givens, who is like a throwback  to an old Western sherriff. He’s a no nonsense straight shooter who tries reason in tough situations, but is quick with a draw when talk won’t cut it.

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The title of the show stems from a shooting in the first episode where Marshall Givens smoked a criminal in Miami who had done him wrong. The shooting was deemed “justified”, but it gets Raylan reassigned to his home state of Kentucky where he becomes reacquainted with old friends, foes and kin. The state seems very lush and beautiful on the show, full of old towns and houses, but also full of ornery natives or the occasional Yankee who’s living there in exile and dreaming of “civilization.”

Justified has a feel that plays very true to Elmore Leonard’s style which usually involves introducing some quirky losers and a hero of some kind, and then throws them into a situation involving money that they all end up fighting over. Having read all of his books, the series makes me feel like I am watching one of his stories come to life. (more…)

“Inglourious Basterds” opened this weekend. It has the potential to be satisfying for Quentin Tarantino fans. I will definitely see it. It is an “alternative history” of WWII, but despite its setting, Tarantino characterizes the movie as a “spaghetti western.” My guess is a hint of the “pulp fiction” writer Elmore Leonard will, like a super fine mist, be present in the film.

On my Facebook profile page, I dutifully filled out my personal interests. Under favorite movies I listed “anything Quentin Tarantino”; under novels I listed “anything Elmore Leonard.” What I left out under “movies” was “anything Elmore Leonard which seem like Quentin Tarantino” and vice versa. To me, they are almost indistinguishable. I have read virtually all of Leonard’s books. I just purchased today his latest, “Road Dogs.” I have seen nearly all of Tarantino’s movies. I have read or seen many of their works multiple times. I still get surprised by a Leonard movie from time to time. I recently saw “3:10 from Yuma” on TV. There was something rivetingly familiar about it. It turns out it was adapted from a 15 page short story by Leonard that I had never read. (more…)

Something must be seriously wrong with “Killshot,” the straight-to-video flick starring the resurgent Mickey Rourke. The movie features not just Rourke, but rising star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Diane Lane, Rosario Dawson and Thomas Jane – reputable actors, all.

And it’s under the direction of John Madden (“Shakespeare in Love”), working from an Elmore Leonard story. And it still rocketed past every movie theater save one in Arizona earlier this year, netting a measly $18,000?

The film, heading to DVD May 26, deserved a better fate. (more…)