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.

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.