Elmore Leonard Documentary Airing Nationally on Public Television

A documentary about renowned author Elmore Leonard, But Don’t Try to Write, will be airing first on July 7th at 2 p.m. on public television in the cities across the United States. The documentary was written and directed by John Mulholland and Produced and Edited by Richard Zampella.

But Don’t Try to Write explores the author’s legacy and his influence on generations of writers and will be narrated by Campbell Scott. It will first premiere on July 7th, 2022 at 2 p.m. in cities like Memphis, Jackson, Columbus-Tupelo, Biloxi-Gulfport, Meridian, and Greenwood-Greenville. At 9 p.m. the documentary will premiere in San Francisco and Monterey-Salinas. In the days following the initial premiers, the film will be broadcasted across the country in cities like Cleveland, Portland, Bend, Tucson, Eugene, Meridian, and Youngstown. But Don’t Try to Write is a produced by Richard Zampella and Shannon Mulholland, executive produced by Craig Gilbert, a production of Dutch Films, LLC and distributed by American Public Television (APT).

The film features interviews with Jim Born, Mike Lupica, Wendy Calhoun, Neely Tucker, Graham Yost, and many others. Through these conversations, the film paints a portrait of an artist who has profoundly impacted our culture and our language. It also includes 30 minutes of original, unreleased interview footage with Elmore Leonard.

Michael Karp Composes Score for Elmore Leonard Documentary

Michael Karp Completes Score for Elmore Leonard Documentary

NEW YORK, NY -- Michael has received two Emmys and one Emmy nomination for his work and is an eleven-time recipient of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers' prestigious "Most Performed Television Theme" award and the winner of the "Special Distinction" award for "Affirmation for Strings", a work for the concert stage. From works for large orchestra to solo instruments - such diverse music as rock, pop, rhythm and blues, alternative, punk, rap, hip-hop, jazz, world and classical - Michael's music transcends all styles and genres.

Whether enhancing the beauty or majesty of the Olympics, or adding excitement, drama and raw energy to New York Yankees Baseball, Major League Baseball's, World Series, International, or HBO's, Greatest Sports Upsets, Michael Karp's music excites. Whether underscoring the humor, emotions and cultural differences in National Geographic's, Worlds Apart, or providing the musical identity for Dateline NBC, NBC News' Presidential Election Coverage, or Operation: Freedom, Michael Karp's music inspires.

Having created music for all the major broadcast networks as well as many of the national cable networks, independent and affiliated stations and major broadcast syndicators, Michael brings a unique blend of experience, creativity, vision and understanding to his work - always striving for that perfect complement - when music and visuals combine to create a truly magical experience.

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.

New Elmore Leonard Documentary Begins Post Production

Image(s) courtesy of: "The Elmore Leonard Archive, Irvin Department , University of South Carolina Libraries"​

Documentary Writer/Director, John Mulholland has wrapped production on his new feature documentary on "Hollywood's Favorite Writer" Elmore Leonard, and has begun post-production on the film.

The documentary is produced by Richard Zampella , who shot the interviews and will be editing the film with Mulholland. 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 is an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. Among his best-known works are Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Swag, Hombre, Mr. Majestyk, and Rum Punch (adapted for the movie Jackie Brown). Leonard's writings include short stories and original screenplays that became the films 3:10 to Yuma and The Tall T, as well as the FX television series Justified.

On camera interviews include:

Author, James O. Born, Producer & Writer, Wendy Calhoun, Retired LAPD Sergeant, Cheryl Dorsey Writer, Kate Dries, Author, Rachel Howzell Hall, Author, James W. Hall, Elmore Leonard Children, Peter, Chris, Kate and Jane Leonard, Elmore Leonard Wife, Beverly Leonard, Author and Sports Writer, Mike Lupica, Author, Alphie McCourt, Family Friend and Leonard Advisor, Bill Mertz Family Friend, Eliza Mertz, Author, Friend & Bookstore Owner, Otto Pendler, Virginia Tech Film Studies Professor, Stephen Prince, Bailbondsman, Mike Sandy, Author & Leonard Researcher, Gregg Sutter, Washington Post Columnist and Author, Neely Tucker and Producer & Writer, Graham Youst

Director John Mulholland & Producer Richard Zampella's last film, "Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen"  received a New York Times Critic's Pick which opened in theaters in New York & Los Angeles in 2013 and is currently in distribution nationwide.

Mike Lupica Interview for Elmore Leonard Documentary

Mulholland/Zampella Interview with Author Mike Lupica

Mike Lupica is one of the most prominent sports writers in America and a syndicated columnist for the New York Daily News; he's also a best-selling author of both mysteries and young adult sports novels--he was also great friends with writer Elmore Leonard. Lupica was interviewed Friday May 6, 2016 for the Elmore Leonard Documentary: The Dickens of Detroit after his appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe. The film is Written & Directed by John Mulholland and Produced by Richard Zampella. ‪#‎elmoreleonard‬ ‪#‎mikelupica‬

Neely Tucker on Elmore Leonard

Elmore Leonard was personally and professionally a huge influence on author Neely Tucker who is a staff writer for the Washington Post Sunday Magazine. Tucker has reported from more than 50 countries around the world and from two dozen of these United States. He is the author of “Love in the Driest Season.” A native of Mississippi, he now lives with his family just outside of D.C. He is an embarrassingly huge fan of Mississippi State and the New Orleans Saints.

We spent a Saturday afternoon with Neely outside Washington, D.C. – discussing all things Elmore Leonard. His interview for the documentary Elmore Leonard: The Dickens of Detroit was wonderfully focused, animated and filled with engaging insight.

The Dickens of Detroit is Written & Directed by John Mulholland and produced by Richard Zampella. Visit http://www.dickensofdetroit.com

Mike Sandy: Inspiration for Max Cherry in Rum Punch

Max Cherry from Rum Punch was modeled on Mike Sandy

Elmore Leonard got a lot more out of Palm Beach County than a place to get away from the brutal Michigan winters. He also got the setting and characters for a batch of his most popular novels.

From “Maximum Bob,” which he dedicated to the late Judge Marvin Mounts, to “Out of Sight” (about a jailbreak from Glades Correctional) to “Split Images” and “Rum Punch,” Leonard found South Florida — the perfect setting for his terse, epigrammatic outlaws and thugs.

Mike Sandy, a West Palm bail bondsman, remembers meeting him in the late ’80s.

“Marvin Mounts and Dutch Leonard walked into my office,” said Sandy. “My office was on Banyan, and he was just finishing ‘Maximum Bob.’ Dutch was interested in doing a book about a bail bondsman and said, ‘Can I ask for your help?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ “He was a little startled and said, ‘Why not?’

“Because everything I’ve ever seen, heard or read about bail bondsmen is negative and I don’t want to contribute to that.”

“I’ll make you a deal,” he said. “Share your files with me, and I promise you that whatever I write about your business will be positive.”

Leonard began borrowing files from Sandy, one of which involved a stewardess arrested for drug trafficking. From that came “Rum Punch,” later made into the movie “Jackie Brown” by Quentin Tarantino.

“He would ride around with me,” says Sandy. “I was listening to the Delfonics a lot at the time, and he used that in the book. Dutch would ask, ‘What does a bondsman do in this situation? What does he do if the guy runs?"

After the book was published, Leonard and his then-wife Joan, and Sandy and his wife remained friendly. Sandy believes that Leonard had trouble adjusting to the death of his wife, “She was more than his wife, she was his editor and proofreader. Everything he wrote, she read before he sent it to his publisher.”

Leonard was not an overnight success. He didn’t have a bestseller until he was 60. He started out writing Westerns and many of those were turned into movies: “3:10 To Yuma,” "Valdez Is Coming,” “Hombre.”

Learn More at: www.dickensofdetroit.com

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.

Life is like a box of chocolates in Savannah..

Savannah is the oldest city in Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. The city has served as film location form many film scenes. Savannah is probably best known movie for the Tom Hanks film Forrest Gump. In the beginning of the film, a feather floats high above the grand southern trees and sweeps down and eventually lands at the base of a park bench.

Hanks sits on the park bench located in Chippewa Square for 80% of the film, telling his life story to anyone who will listen. Film Director John Mulholland and Producer Richard Zampella visited Savannah in February 2016 while traveling to Miami, Florida to conduct interviews for the Elmore Leonard Documentary: The Dickens of Detroit.

Zampella & Mulholland Press Release for Elmore Leonard Documentary

Richard Zampella & John Mulholland Press Release on Broadway World

Mulholland & Zampella Press Release on Los Angeles CBS Affiliate

LOS ANGELES –– Oct 12, 2105 – Richard Zampella & John Mulholland Elmore Leonard Press Release Being Picked Up By Major Media Outlets Including CBS & Broadway World.

http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/John-Mulholland-Richard-Zampella-Filming-Interviews-for-Elmore-Leonard-Documentary-20151012

http://www.cbs8.com/story/30237090/writerdirector-john-mulholland-and-producer-richard-zampella-in-los-angeles-filming-interviews-for-elmore-leonard-documentary

John Mulholland wrote/directed the NY Times Critics Pick, Cooper and Hemingway: The True Gen, which explores The 20 year friendship of Ernest Hemingway and Gary Cooper. The feature documentary was produced by Richard Zampella at Transmultimedia Entertainment.

Writer/Director John Mulholland and Producer Richard Zampella in Los Angeles Filming Interviews for Elmore Leonard Documentary

Zampella & Mulholland Wrap West Coast Interviews for Elmore Leonard Documentary

Oct 8, 2015 - LOS ANGELES -- Writer/Director John Mulholland and Producer Richard Zampella have wrapped up a week in Los Angeles, filming West Coast interviews for their upcoming Elmore Leonard documentary. The interviews explore Leonard’s writing and the numerous film adaptations based on his work, such as: Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, Out Of Sight, and the FX television series, Justified.

Among those interviewed:

Producer/Writer Gregg Sutter, who served as Leonard’s researcher for more than three decades, is editor and contributor to the Library of America’s three-volume Elmore Leonard Anthology.

Graham Yost created and co-wrote Justified, which concluded its six-season run earlier this year. The series was based on Elmore Leonard's short story, Fire in the Hole. Yost wrote the films, Speed, Broken Arrow and Hard Rain, and worked on such HBO series as Band Of Brothers and The Pacific.

Rachel Howzell Hall is author of the critically-acclaimed Detective Elouise Norton novels, Land of Shadows and Skies of Ash (Forge) -- cited by the LA Times as “Books to Read This Summer” in both 2014 and 2015. Hall’s first novel, A Quiet Storm (Scribner), was a Borders’ Original Voices selection.

Wendy Calhoun, currently co-exec producer on Empire, Fox’s hip-hop smash, was a co-producer, story editor and writer for two seasons on Justified. Calhoun was also a writer and producer on the ABC-TV series, Revenge.

Cheryl Dorsey, retired LAPD Sergeant, is author of Black & Blue: The Creation of a Manifesto, which offers an unsparing look at the inner workings of the LAPD regarding its black officers, its female officers, and, most especially, its black female officers. Dorsey has appeared on MSNBC and contributes to The Huffington Post.



Mulholland wrote/directed the NY Times Critics Pick, Cooper and Hemingway: The True Gen, which explored the 20 year friendship of Ernest Hemingway and Gary Cooper. The feature documentary was produced by Richard Zampella at Transmultimedia Entertainment.

For more info visit:

www.dickensofdetroit.com
www.richardzampella.com
www.transmultimedia.com
www.cooperhemingway.com

Graham Yost Interview in Carmel

Screenwriter Graham Yost: Show runner of FX's Justified is interviewed for Elmore Leonard Documentary

CARMEL, CA – 10.1.15: Writer/Director John Mulholland and Producer Richard Zampella travel to Carmel, California to Interview Screenwriter Graham Yost for Elmore Leonard Documentary. Yost wrote the films Speed, Broken Arrow, and Hard Rain and helmed the FX television series Justified for 6 seasons. The series was based on Elmore Leonard's short story "Fire in the Hole".

Read more about: Elmore Leonard: The Dickens of Detroit

Mulholland & Zampella Elmore Leonard Documentary Interviews

Wendy Calhoun, Co-Executive Producer of Fox's Empire Interviewed by John Mulholland

Cheryl Dorsey, Author of Black & Blue: The Creation of a Manifesto is Interviewed on Elmore Leonard

John Mulholland and Richard Zampella continue conducting on camera interviews this week in Los Angeles for the upcoming documentary on author Elmore Leonard. The interviews will explore the numerous film adaptations/screenplays of Elmore Leonard novels and short stories. Mulholland is exploring the impact that Leonard's work has on current day screenwriters with his lean, terse minimalist writing style.

[Top] Wendy Calhoun is interviewed for Elmore Leonard Documentary. Wendy was a co-producer and writer for Elmore Leonard adapted FX television series Justified. She was the Executive Story Editor for the first season and wrote the episode "Blind Spot". For the second season she wrote the episode "For Blood Or Money". Prior to Justified she had worked as a writer and producer on Revenge. Currently, Wendy serves as co-executive producer of creator Lee Daniels television series “Empire” –Fox’s new hip-hop family drama.

[Bottom] Cheryl Dorsey is author of Black & Blue: The Creation of a Manifesto which takes a hard look at the inner workings of the LAPD—especially regarding its black officers, its women officers, and most especially its black women officers. She is interviewed by Writer/Director John Mulholland for the documentary Elmore Leonard: The Dickens of Detroit in Los Angeles on 9.28.15

Zampella & Mulholland Filming Interviews in Los Angeles

Author Gregg Sutter

Author Rachel Howzell Hall

Writer/Director John Mulholland and Producer Richard Zampella are in Los Angeles Filming interviews for the documentary – Elmore Leonard: The Dickens of Detroit.

[Pictured Top] Production still of Gregg Sutter who for more than 30 years, served as the late Elmore Leonard's researcher. Sutter is the editor of the Library of America's Elmore Leonard anthology, which will be released in three volumes, the first of which was published last year (volume two comes this year, volume three in 2016). The first volume features Leonard's early Detroit crime novels—Fifty-Two Pick Up, Swag, Unknown Man No. 89 , and The Switch.

[Pictured Below] Transmultimedia Entertainment Interview with RACHEL HOWZELL HALL who is the author of the critically acclaimed Detective Elouise Norton series. Land of Shadows and Skies of Ash (Forge) were included on the Los Angeles Times’ “Books to Read This Summer” for 2014 and 2015, and the New York Times called Lou Norton “a formidable fighter—someone you want on your side.” Rachel’s first novel, A Quiet Storm (Scribner), was a Borders’ Original Voices selection. A featured writer on NPR’s acclaimed ‘Crime in the City’ series, Rachel also serves as a mentor in AWP’s Writer to Writer Program. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.

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

Read more...

Richard Zampella: The American Literary and Film Series Interviews

PRLog (Press Release) - Jan. 15, 2014 - NEW YORK -- TransMultimedia Entertainment www.trans-multimedia.com has announced that it is remastering its standard definition library which includes over a 1000 hours of never seen before interview footage.

TransMultimedia will bring over 1000 hours of archival interviews featuring subjects of Classic Hollywood actors, directors, fashion designers, producers, authors and more into HD format for Blu-ray or new media exploitation in the years to come. A full list of subject matter will be released in the coming weeks.

Richard Zampella, Managing Partner of TransMultimedia, commented: “Our decision to remaster these incredible interviews not only allows existing fans to experience these historical stories of the golden age of Hollywood in high definition, but also encourages a new global audience to discover and see some of these interviews for the first time.

“We have an exciting and busy year ahead but are confident that our Blu-ray plans for these treasures will ensure that these informative and educational archival interviews will live on for generations to come.”

TransMultimedia is a New York based media company that produces content in all media throughout the world. Learn more on various preservation projects by Managing Partner of TransMultimedia, Richard Zampella at his Historic Continuance blog.

TransMultimedia produced the NY Times Critic’s Pick feature documentary in HD/Blu-Ray “Cooper and Hemingway: The True Gen” (cooperhemingway.com) released in theaters in 2013 as well as numerous multimedia projects.