'Justified' Creator Aims To Stay True To The Late Writer Elmore Leonard

Terry Gross at NPR's Fresh Air interviewed Graham Yost, the producer of TV's Justified, the crime show based on the late great crime writer Elmore Leonard's novella, Fire in the Hole.

The FX series Justified, which is in its sixth and final season, is based on the novella Fire in the Hole by Elmore Leonard. Leonard was an executive producer of the series until his death in 2013. The show's creator and showrunner, Graham Yost, says he has made it his mission to stay as true as he can to Leonard's vision and storytelling style.

"Ultimately I look at this show as Elmore Leonard's show, and we're all in service of him and his view and his way of writing and creating these characters," Yost tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "So whatever feels like it works within that world is something we're open to."

Set in Harlan County, Ky., which is coal mining country, the story revolves around two men who have known each other since they were in the mines together as teens: Raylan Givens, played by Timothy Olyphant, and Boyd Crowder, played by Walton Goggins. Raylan is now a deputy U.S. marshal and Boyd is an outlaw whose criminal activities include robbing banks. Raylan wants to move to Florida to reconnect with his ex-wife and their 5-month-old child, but first he wants to bring Boyd down, which means catching him when he pulls off his next heist.

The show is violent, but Yost says he and the writers have to walk a line to keep the network happy.

"Elmore's world is a violent world," he says. "In the best Elmore scenes, you think that something is either going to take a hard turn into romance and some kind of liaison, or it's going to take it the other way and go into violence. There's often something oddly humorous about the violence in Elmore's movies and in his books."

You can read the rest of the piece and listen to NPR's audio clip via the below link:

http://www.npr.org/2015/03/26/395534419/justified-creator-aims-to-stay-true-to-the-late-writer-elmore-leonard

Note: You can also read my Crime Beat column on Elmore Leonard, one of my favorite writers, via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2009/05/return-to-elmoreland-elmore-leonards.html

Return To Elmoreland: Timothy Olyphant On Final Season of 'Justified,' The TV Program Based On Elmore Leonard's Deputy U.S. Marshal Character

Allen Barra interviewed actor Timothy Olyphant at the dailybeast.com on the final season of Justified and the passing of the great crime writer Elmore Leonard.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, played  by Timothy Olyphant, has a quiet amiability which belies the intensity of a man who yearns to clean up Harlan County, USA, the hell hole of unemployment, meth labs, and racism where he grew up.  Olyphant has garnered an Emmy nomination and won the praise of the author who created Raylan, Elmore Leonard.

Raylan is a lawman for our time who works not for the ideology-tinged FBI but the most dangerous arm of American law enforcement agencies, the U.S. Marshals Service. His tan Stetson connects him symbolically with a century of movie and television good guys, but, as the color indicates, Raylan can never quite be the unvarnished hero. His ties to Harlan through blood, marriage, and history constantly draw him into dangerous compromises which blur the lines between lawman and outlaw.

Tonight marks the premiere of the sixth and final season of Justified, and fans will be glued to their seats wondering which, if any, of the show’s characters will survive the Marshals office’s final assault on the drug-ravaged, welfare-gutted hills of Harlan County.

Timothy Olyphant spoke to us about these and other topics from his home in California.

Sorry to start out on a sad note, but Elmore Leonard died almost a year and a half ago. I know everybody loved to see him on set, and he enjoyed being there. What is life like without Elmore?

We were all affected by his passing because he always had some interesting observation to make and was always there if you had a question for him. But I don’t think our attitudes about the show changed any when he was no longer with us. We’re all very much aware that it was his world, and we’re just lucky to be living in it. 

You can read the rest of the interview via the below link:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/20/timothy-olyphant-i-know-what-happens-to-raylan-at-the-end-of-justified.html

You can also read my Crime Beat column on Elmore Leonard via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2009/05/return-to-elmoreland-elmore-leonards.html

You can also read my Counterterorism magazine interview with retired U.S. Marshal Mike Earp on hunting the worst-of-the-worst criminals via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2014/12/hunting-worst-of-worst-criminals-my-q.html  

Happy Birthday To Elmore Leonard

As Biography.com notes, today is the birthday of one of my favorite crime writers, the late Elmore Leonard.

Born in Louisiana in 1925, Elmore Leonard was inspired by Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front.

Leonard's determination to be a writer stayed with him through a stint in the U.S. Navy and a job in advertising. His early credits include mostly Westerns, including 3:10 to Yuma.

When that genre became less popular, Leonard turned to crime novels set in Detroit, Michigan, including Get Shorty, Jackie Brown and Out of Sight.

The prolific writer died in Detroit on August 20, 2013, at age 87.

You can read the rest of the piece and watch a short video of Elmore Leonard's life via the below link:

http://www.biography.com/people/elmore-leonard-575754

You can also read my Crime Beat column on Elmore Leonard via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2009/05/return-to-elmoreland-elmore-leonards.html

Below are the jacket covers of some of his crime novels:

 

Elmore Leonard In Hospital Recovering From Stroke

Susan Whital at the Detroit News reports on the hospitalization of crime novelist Elmore Leonard.

Crime writer Elmore Leonard suffered a stroke a week ago and remains hospitalized at an undisclosed Detroit area hospital, his longtime researcher Gregg Sutter confirmed today.

“Elmore had a stroke; it happened a week ago, last Monday,” Sutter said. “He’s doing better every day, and the family is guardedly optimistic. He’s showing great spirit. He’s a fighter, and we’re glad to see that.”

With 45 novels under his belt, if Leonard, 87, had slowed down his writing schedule prior to the stroke, it’s only compared to his prolific earlier days. He’s been working on his latest book.

“He’s very much into his 46th novel,” Sutter said, “working very hard.”

 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

 

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130805/ENT06/308050096/Elmore-Leonard-hospital-recovering-from-stroke?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CEntertainment

You can also read my column on Elmore Leonard via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2009/05/return-to-elmoreland-elmore-leonards.html