Elmore Leonard: But Don't Try to Write

There's Literature... There's Genre... and then there's Elmore Leonard - A Documentary Coming Spring 2019.

Elmore Leonard, one of the most popular and admired authors of his time, wrote more than forty novels and dozens of short stories. Among his many NY Times bestsellers: Tishomingo Blues, Glitz, Get Shorty, Maximum Bob, and Rum Punch. Unlike most (so-called) genre writers, however, Leonard is taken seriously, indeed, by those in the literary arena. This documentary film from Transmultimedia Entertainment is Produced/Edited by Richard Zampella and Written/Directed by John Mulholland. Craig Gilbert is Executive Producer and Campbell Scott Narrates.

Elmore Leonard Miami Interviews

MIAMI - Feb 29, 2016 -- For more than seventeen years with the U.S. Marshals Service, DEA, and Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Jim Born has seen just about everything Florida crime and criminals can throw at him. Elmore Leonard first met Jim Born when he was a DEA agent stationed in South Florida. Jim’s dad, Judge John Born was friends with Leonard’s close friend Judge Marvin Mounts. Jim gave Leonard technical advice on a number of books starting with Get Shorty.

James W. Hall interviewed by John Mulholland in Key Largo for the upcoming Elmore Leonard Documentary -- The Dickens of Detroit. Hall is an American author and professor who has written eighteen novels that include Under Cover of Daylight, Hard Aground, Gone Wild, Buzz Cut, Red Sky at Night, Rough Draft, Off the Chart and Silencer.

John Mulholland & Richard Zampella Wrap Interviews in Detroit

Bill Leonard -- Son of Author Elmore Leonard Interviewed for the  (2015) Documentary -- The Dickens of Detroit

Writer/Director John Mulholland and Producer Richard Zampella are in Detroit, Michigan this week, filming Interviews for the upcoming documentary, Elmore Leonard: The Dickens of Detroit. The documentary explores Elmore Leonard’s life, his works and his place in the American literary pantheon. When Elmore Leonard died on August 20, 2013 at age 87, he left behind more than 40 novels and dozens  of short stories. By almost universal consent, he is the finest American crime writer in the 20th Century . Many critics argue that, if anything, the reference to genre slights his contributions. Martin Amis described him as “a literary genius,” and “the nearest America has to a national writer.”



Throughout the fifties, Elmore Leonard was an obscurity, toiling in a dying genre – the western – putting down first drafts on yellow notepads from five to seven in the morning, before laboring all day on the Chevrolet truck account at Campbell Ewald, a Detroit ad agency. By the 1970s, Leonard had turned to crime fiction -- set usually in Detroit or South Florida -- and the men and women who commit the crimes. And then, in 1985, featured on the cover of Newsweek, Elmore Leonard became the proverbial overnight sensation and an NY Times best-selling author. Leonard became a household name, profiled in GQ, Rolling Stone and The New York Times Sunday Magazine. Praised by authors and critics, Time Magazine dubbed him “The Dickens of Detroit.”

When he died in 2013, at age 87, he was still writing, still a NY Times best-selling author. Chances are you knew him, even if you didn’t know his name, by such film titles as: Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, Out Of Sight, or the TV series, Justified. As Elmore Leonard once said, “I’ve always seen my books as movies.”

John Mulholland (Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen) has been immersed in everything Elmore Leonard for a year, his writing – novels, short stories, screenplays, and films based on his work --  and much of what has been written about him over the decades. He is in the process of interviewing Leonard’s family and closest friends, along with a rich assortment of women and men who worked with Leonard or who have written about and studied Leonard.





Richard Zampella is a documentary film producer who has created content for Warner Home Video and Paramount Pictures. Among his production credits are producer of Sergeant York of God and Country, narrated by Liam Neeson. Inside High Noon narrated by Frank Langella and Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen narrated by Sam Waterston. The later was chosen by the New York Times as a Critics’ Pic in October of 2013.

Visit the Dickens of Detroit Website

John Mulholland & Richard Zampella Filming Documentary in Detroit

PR Log - Aug. 13, 2015 - DETROIT -- Writer/Director John Mulholland and Producer Richard Zampella are in Detroit, Michigan this week, filming Interviews for the upcoming Transmultimedia Entertainment documentary, Elmore Leonard: The Dickens of Detroit. The documentary explores Elmore Leonard’s life, his works and his place in the American literary pantheon. When Elmore Leonard died on August 20, 2013 at age 87, he left behind more than 40 novels and dozens  of short stories. By almost universal consent, he is the finest American crime writer in the 20th Century . Many critics argue that, if anything, the reference to genre slights his contributions. Martin Amis described him as “a literary genius,” and “the nearest America has to a national writer.”



Throughout the fifties, Elmore Leonard was an obscurity, toiling in a dying genre – the western – putting down first drafts on yellow notepads from five to seven in the morning, before laboring all day on the Chevrolet truck account at Campbell Ewald, a Detroit ad agency. By the 1970s, Leonard had turned to crime fiction -- set usually in Detroit or South Florida -- and the men and women who commit the crimes. And then, in 1985, featured on the cover of Newsweek, Elmore Leonard became the proverbial overnight sensation and an NY Times best-selling author. Leonard became a household name, profiled in GQ, Rolling Stone and The New York Times Sunday Magazine. Praised by authors and critics, Time Magazine dubbed him “The Dickens of Detroit.”

When he died in 2013, at age 87, he was still writing, still a NY Times best-selling author. Chances are you knew him, even if you didn’t know his name, by such film titles as: Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, Out Of Sight, or the TV series, Justified. As Elmore Leonard once said, “I’ve always seen my books as movies.”

John Mulholland (Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen) has been immersed in everything Elmore Leonard for a year, his writing – novels, short stories, screenplays, and films based on his work --  and much of what has been written about him over the decades. He is in the process of interviewing Leonard’s family and closest friends, along with a rich assortment of women and men who worked with Leonard or who have written about and studied Leonard.





Richard Zampella is a documentary film producer who has created content for Warner Home Video and Paramount Pictures. Among his production credits are producer of Sergeant York of God and Country, narrated by Liam Neeson. Inside High Noon narrated by Frank Langella and Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen narrated by Sam Waterston. The later was chosen by the New York Times as a Critics’ Pic in October of 2013.

Visit The Dickens of Detroit Website

Mulholland/Zampella Filming Interviews in Detroit for New Documentary

DETROIT -- August 11, 2015 -- Writer/Director John Mulholland and Producer Richard Zampella arrive in Detroit, Michigan this week to conduct interviews for Elmore Leonard: The Dickens of Detroit. Production still of Interview with Bill Martz: Best friend of Elmore Leonard in Michigan since childhood.

Elmore Leonard’s life, his works, his place in the American literary pantheon, is the subject of this new documentary. Central to the film, adding depth and resonance, is more than half-an-hour of never-before-seen interview footage with Leonard in which he analyzes and discusses how he started, why he wrote what he did, how he arrived at his lean, terse minimalist trademark.

See more at: www.dickensofdetroit.com

Elmore Leonard: The Dickens of Detroit Now in Production

Elmore Leonard’s life, his works, his place in the American literary pantheon, is the subject of this new documentary from Writer/Director John Mulholland and Producer Richard Zampella at Transmultimedia Entertainment. Central to the film, adding depth and resonance, is more than half-an-hour of never-before-seen interview footage with Leonard in which he analyzes and discusses how he started, why he wrote what he did, how he arrived at his lean, terse minimalist trademark.

Elmore Leonard: The Dickens of Detroit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4332600/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_1

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