Elmore LeonardFilmography

Occupation:: Executive Producer, Screenwriter, Book Author
Biography:: Without question, one of the 20th century's premier writers of crime fiction, Elmore Leonard's fascinatingly seedy characters and penchant for snappy, natural dialogue has found the longtime writer climbing from pulp Western author to one of the most sought after scribes of the Hollywood scene....Read More

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Killshot

Crew: Book Author, Executive Producer

Actors: Diane Lane, Mickey Rourke, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Thomas Jane, Rosario Dawson

Synopsis: Prime Suspect 4 and Inspector Morse director John Madden comes back to the world of crime after a brief foray into romance with Shakespeare in Love and Captain Corelli's Mandolin with this adaptation of pulp icon Elmore Leonard's novel concerning a real estate agent and her husband (Thomas Jane) Read More

1/23/09
Tishomingo Blues

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Matthew McConaughey, Don Cheadle

Synopsis: Academy Award-nominated actor Don Cheadle makes his feature directorial debut with this crime drama based on a book by Elmore Leonard. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide Read More

1/1/09
3:10 to Yuma

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Peter Fonda, Gretchen Mol, Ben Foster

Synopsis: Russell Crowe plays a desperado whose accomplices stage an ambush after he is taken into custody by a determined local sheriff in this remake of the 1957 film starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin. James Mangold directs a script based on the Elmore Leonard short story and penned by Stuart Beattie, Michael Brandt Read More

9/2/07
Be Cool

Crew: Book Author, Executive Producer

Actors: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Vince Vaughn, Cedric the Entertainer, André Benjamin

Synopsis: Underworld hipster Chili Palmer is back in the entertainment business in this sequel to the 1995 hit Get Shorty, which like the first film is based on a novel by Elmore Leonard. Gangster-turned-movie producer Chili (once again played by John Travolta) has grown tired of the screen trade Read More

3/4/05
The Big Bounce

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Owen Wilson, Morgan Freeman, Gary Sinise, Sara Foster, Willie Nelson

Synopsis: George Armitage directs this big-screen adaptation of Elmore Leonard's The Big Bounce. Jack Ryan (Owen Wilson) is an occasional thief who tends to a judge (Morgan Freeman). A woman involved with Ray Ritchie (Gary Sinese), a real estate developer of questionable ethics, seduces Jack. Ritchie and Read More

1/30/04
Out of Sight

Crew: Book Author

Actors: George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Dennis Farina

Synopsis: Steven Soderbergh directed this crime caper adapted from the novel by Elmore Leonard. When ex-con Jack Foley (George Clooney) robs a bank, his car goes dead, and Foley lands in a Florida prison. His escape from prison doesn't go as planned, since it's witnessed by deputy federal marshal Karen Read More

6/26/98
Maximum Bob [TV Series]

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Beau Bridges, Liz Vassey, Sam Robards, Kiersten Warren, Rae'Ven Larrymore-Kelly

Synopsis: The comedy-drama TV series, adapted from Elmore Leonard's best-selling novel, is directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, who previously brought Leonard to film as the executive producer of Out of Sight (1998) and the director of Get Shorty (1995). Beau Bridges stars as Judge "Maximum" Bob Gibbs, czar of the Read More

1998
Jackie Brown

Crew: Book Author, Executive Producer

Actors: Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, Robert De Niro

Synopsis: Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed this adaptation of Elmore Leonard's 1995 Rum Punch, switching the action from Miami to LA, and altering the central character from white to black. Ruthless arms dealer Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson), who lives with perpetually stoned beach-babe Melanie (Bridget Fonda Read More

12/25/97
Pronto

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Peter Falk, Glenne Headly, James LeGros

Synopsis: Based on a best-selling novel by Elmore Leonard, this crime drama centers upon a Florida bookie's attempts to leave behind his sordid life and to build a clean new life for himself and his ex-stripper girlfriend. He has a nice little nest egg to help him do it and plans to live on the Italian Read More

1997
Touch

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Bridget Fonda, Christopher Walken, Skeet Ulrich, Tom Arnold, Gina Gershon

Synopsis: This film is the product of an unlikely pairing between novelist Elmore Leonard and maverick screenwriter-director Paul Schrader. Leonard usually writes Detroit-based crime novels; this time, Schrader transports one of Leonard's quirkier, non-crime books to an L.A. scene. Christopher Walken plays Read More

1997
Last Stand at Saber River

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Tom Selleck, Keith Carradine, David Carradine, Suzy Amis, David Dukes

Synopsis: Tom Selleck stars as a Confederate soldier who finds himself at a crossroads, in this made-for-television adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel. Paul Cable (Selleck) who returns to his Arizona homestead after the end of the Civil War, only to find it taken over by Union-sympathizing pioneers. Cable Read More

1997
Get Shorty

Crew: Book Author

Actors: John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, Danny DeVito, Dennis Farina, Delroy Lindo, James Gandolfini

Synopsis: A gangster is looking to get away from crooked deals and double-crossing people but ends up in the movie business anyway in this comic crime story. Chili Palmer (John Travolta) is a Miami-based loan collector for the mob trying to collect a gambling debt. His assignment takes him to Hollywood to Read More

1995
Cat Chaser

Crew: Book Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Anthony Correa, Peter Weller, Kelly McGillis, Charles Durning, Frederic Forrest, Tomas Milian

Synopsis: Elmore Leonard's brittle novel is brought to the screen in this adaptation by director Abel Ferrara and screenwriter James Borrelli. Peter Weller plays George Moran, a Miami hotel owner who in times past fought in Santo Domingo during the American intervention into that country. George finds Read More

1990
Glitz

Crew: Book Author

Actors: John Diehl, Markie Post, Jimmy Smits

Synopsis: Glitz was a disappointment for fans of the Elmore Leonard novel on which it was based. Jimmy Smits stars as a savvy Miami police detective Vincent Mora, who is wounded in a shoot-out. Convalescing in Puerto Rico, Mora falls in love with a beautiful woman who later dies under suspicious Read More

1988
The Rosary Murders

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Donald Sutherland, Charles Durning, Josef Sommer, Belinda Bauer, James Murtaugh

Synopsis: A Detroit priest (Donald Sutherland) is trying to help solve a crime spree that has resulted in a horrible series of slayings of area priests and nuns. When he hears the murderer's admission of guilt (while giving confession) he is torn between honoring the vows of privacy and secrecy afforded Read More

8/28/87
52 Pick-Up

Crew: Book Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Roy Scheider, Ann-Margret, Vanity, John Glover, Robert Trebor

Synopsis: Wealthy metallurgist Harry Mitchell (Roy Scheider) lives to regret his extramarital affair with pretty young Cini (Kelly Preston). A trio of vicious blackmailers (John Glover, Robert Trebor, Clarence Williams III) show Mitchell a videotape of his most recent roll in the sack with Cini. They demand Read More

11/7/86
Stick

Crew: Book Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Dar Robinson, Burt Reynolds, Candice Bergen, George Segal, Charles Durning, Jose Perez

Synopsis: Burt Reynolds directed and starred in this actioner from an Elmore Leonard novel about an ex-con living dangerously close to the drug traffickers in Miami. When Stick (Reynolds) arrives in Miami just out of prison, an old buddy of his is murdered, sending Stick on a wild and complex journey to Read More

1985
The Ambassador

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Ellen Burstyn, Rock Hudson, Fabio Testi, Donald Pleasence

Synopsis: Robert Mitchum plays as U.S. ambassador to Israel whose efforts at reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians run afoul of the somewhat questionable ambitions of security advisor Rock Hudson. Meanwhile, Mitchum's wife Ellen Burstyn embarks upon an affair with a PLO leader. When this fact Read More

1984
High Noon, Part Two: The Return of Will Kane

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Lee Majors

Synopsis: Taking over for Gary Cooper, Lee Majors stars as Marshal Will Kane in this made-for-TV movie set a year after the original High Noon ends. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

1980
Mr. Majestyk

Crew: Book Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Charles Bronson, Al Lettieri, Linda Cristal, Lee Purcell, Paul Koslo

Synopsis: Elmore Leonard's script for Mr. Majestyk was, like his novel, supposed to have concentrated on the plight of Chicano migrant workers; but what emerged on screen was extensively reshaped into a standard Charles Bronson vehicle. Battle-weary Vietnam veteran Vince Majestyk (Bronson) settles down in Read More

1974
Joe Kidd

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Robert Duvall, John Saxon, Don Stroud, Stella Garcia

Synopsis: In John Sturges' Americanized version of Sergio Leone's Man-With-No-Name films, Clint Eastwood is Joe Kidd, a cryptic stranger who arrives in the New Mexican town of Sinola, where Mexican bandito/revolutionary Luis Chama (John Saxon) has organized a peasant revolt against the local landowners, who Read More

1972
Valdez Is Coming

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Susan Clark, Jon Cypher, Barton Heyman, Richard Jordan

Synopsis: Adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel, Valdez is Coming stars Burt Lancaster in the title role. A scrupulously honest Mexican-American marshal, Bob Valdez is double-crossed and humiliated by wealthy, unscrupulous rancher Jon Cypher. Since Cypher has the law on his side, Valdez is obliged to mete Read More

1971
The Moonshine War

Crew: Book Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Patrick McGoohan, Richard Widmark, Alan Alda, Melodie Johnson, Will Geer

Synopsis: In this comedy drama set during the late Prohibition era, a federal agent attempts to make some real money before the alcohol ban is lifted. He sets his sights on the whiskey cache of an old army buddy, but just before they strike a deal, two ex-convicts frighten the buddy away. The creeps then Read More

1970
The Big Bounce

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Ryan O'Neal, Leigh Taylor-Young, Van Heflin, Lee Grant, James Daly

Synopsis: Jack Ryan (Ryan O'Neal) is a cucumber picker who is fired after a fight with a Mexican-American (Victor Paul) co-worker. He finds work on a ranch owned by Ray Ritchie (James Daly). Soon his private secretary Nancy (Leigh Taylor-Young) is after Jack. She spends her free time in pursuit of hedonism Read More

1969
Hombre

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Paul Newman, Fredric March, Richard Boone, Diane Cilento, Cameron Mitchell

Synopsis: Yes, Paul Newman is a blue-eyed Indian in Hombre, but this apparent ethnic error is carefully justified in the body of the story. Newman plays a white man who was raised by the Apaches, and ever since has straddled two worlds, feeling truly comfortable in neither. While riding a stagecoach, Newman Read More

1967
3:10 to Yuma

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr, Leora Dana, Henry Jones, Richard Jaeckel

Synopsis: Desperate for money, frontier rancher Van Heflin holds outlaw Glenn Ford at gunpoint, intending to collect the $200 reward. While both men await the train to Yuma that will escort Ford to prison, the cagey outlaw offers Heflin $10,000 if he'll set Ford free. The rest of the film is a Read More

1957
The Tall T

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Randolph Scott, Richard Boone, Maureen O'Sullivan, Arthur Hunnicutt, Skip Homeier

Synopsis: Perhaps the grittiest and grimmest of the Randolph Scott-Budd Boetticher collaborations, The Tall T was adapted by Burt Kennedy from the Elmore Leonard short story The Captive. Scott plays a former ranch foreman who, along with newlyweds Maureen O'Sullivan and John Hubbard, is held hostage at a Read More

1957