How did you get involved in adapting Get Shorty
?
SCOTT FRANK: Three years ago, [producer] Stacey Sher sent me the novel because she knew I was a gigantic Elmore Leonard fan. I said, "I don't want to read it because I know I'm going to like it, and I've got to start writing an original." I told her to try and find someone else first. A few months went by and she called me again, and this time I said I would read it. Oddly enough, this was the only Elmore Leonard book I hadn't read, the reason being at the time I didn't want to look at anything about Hollywood. So anyway, I finally read it on my way, I think, to New York. I got to the scene in the book where Bo Catlett and Chili discuss the script and I called her up and said, "I'll do it." I had so much fun reading that scene, I thought, "How can I not do this movie?" And I just fell in love with the book and saw immediately what to do with it.
Do you think that comes from being familiar with his work?
SCOTT FRANK: Yes, definitely.
How so?
SCOTT FRANK: Well, there's a certain frame of mind you get in every time you sit down to read one of his books. He's such a particular flavor. There's a certain deliciousness in the happenstance: in his books, sh
it just happens, and it's a lot of fun because you never know where it's going.
Did you talk to Leonard first?
SCOTT FRANK: I talked to him, and he said he wanted nothing to do do with it. He just said, "Go to it. I hope you do a good job." No tips, no nothing. He did tell me lots of horror stories, though. The first time we had lunch he spent the whole time talking about how badly some of his other books had been butchered. I came away from this with all these stories in my head thinking, "I don't want to be another horror story at somebody else's lunch."
In an interview some time ago, Leonard said, "I'm always hoping the 'sound' of my material will make it to the screen." There seems to be a general consensus among critics that Get Shorty
has done just that. How did you go about it?
SCOTT FRANK: Well, I'd been stealing from him shamelessly for years anyway, so I kind of had a good feel, although no one can lay claim to being able to imitate Elmore Leonard. The only thing I can say is, you have to know what to keep. I think they first thing people do when adapting a Leonard novel is to jettison all the wonderful character and voice stuff. Instead, they keep the plot, which misses the point of an Elmore Leonard novel: the plot doesn't mean anything. It just doesn't matter. As I said before, all of his books are about happenstance. He once told me he does no outline, then sits down and starts writing, and his characters tell sort of tell him where to go. In fact, he's often referred to as a mystery writer, when he doesn't write mysteries at all. You know right from the beginning who did what to whom. What's really important are the characters. And because he gives you such good ones - they're so rich and so specific - it's easy to infer what they might say, or where they might go. Once you get into the characters, it becomes not so much imitating Elmore Leonard but understanding those characters.
Scenario: The Magazine of Screenwriting Art, Volume 2, Number 1, interview conducted by Tod Lippy
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