|
Be
cool!
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Movie
| Book
| Author
| Director
& cast
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Book: Be Cool (1999)
Movie: Be Cool (Spring 2005)
Premise
movie:
"The continuing adventures of Chili Palmer, strong-arm debt collector turned Hollywood movie producer. By the time the
story begins, Chili has abandoned the fickle movie industry. And so
his adventures, this time around, concern the music industry where
he becomes the promoter of a struggling singer who is being pursued
by the Russian mafia."
from:
http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hp&cf=
prev&id=1808600381
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Premise
book:
"In "Be Cool," Chili's back, only now he's a
successful Hollywood producer with two films under his belt. As
in "Get Shorty," he's got a concept for a new movie -- one about the
music industry this time -- but no clear plot or ending. And since
he can't seem to develop a script by imagination alone, he again has
to manipulate characters in his real life to get ideas for his movie
("I'm plotting," he explains at one point as he schemes to get rid
of the hit man who's after him). The story line is too convoluted to
summarize here, but take my word for it: It's "Get Shorty" all over
again, this time with plenty of cynical details about the popular
music business. Chili again plays puppeteer, setting one group of
his antagonists against another (here it's the Russian mafia, a rock
singer's sleazy manager and a scary hip-hop group instead of
Colombian drug lords, crooked limo drivers and an angry Miami
gangster). Much good-natured bloodletting ensues, leading one L.A.
detective to remark: "My wife wants to know how come I'm putting in
so much overtime lately. I told her 'cause Chili Palmer's making a
movie." It's all very deftly done, and -- remarkably -- just as
fresh as it was almost a decade ago. The movie version (complete
with soundtrack CD) is no doubt already in the works, and I'll be
first in line for the premiere. But what I'd really like to see is a
third installment of the Palmer saga, in which Chili decides to do a
movie about the absurdities of the New York publishing industry.
Man, would I have some ideas for him there."
from:
http://archive.salon.com/books/sneaks/
1999/01/21sneaks.html
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Author:
" Elmore Leonard became interested in writing in 1935,
after reading a serialization of All Quiet on the Western Front in the
Detroit Times. Touched by the story, he wrote a play based on the
novel for his fifth-grade classroom, using the desks as "No-Man's-Land." In high school he wrote a story or two for the school paper
but spent most of his time reading. After graduating in 1943 Leonard
joined the navy and served with a Seabee unit in the South Pacific.
He left the service in 1946 and enrolled at the University of
Detroit. At the university he began writing again, entering short
story contests and placing third in one of them. He graduated in
1950 with a major in English and philosophy.
In 1949, while still in college, Leonard joined the
Campbell-Ewald advertising agency. He also began writing in earnest during this
period. He had his first success in 1951 when Argosy magazine
published his short story "Trail of the Apache." Other stories—all
westerns—followed in such publications as Zane Grey Western and The
Saturday Evening Post. In 1953 Leonard published his first novel,
The Bounty Hunters, followed by four more over the next eight years.
Between 1951 and 1961 he published 30 short stories, five novels,
and made two sales to the movies. When his novel Hombre was chosen
as one of the best westerns of all time by the Western Writers of
America in 1961, Leonard finally felt confident enough to quit the
advertising agency and devote all of his time to writing.
As the market for westerns began to dry up, however, Leonard found
himself writing educational films for Encyclopaedia Britannica,
industrial films for corporations and advertising and sales
material. He switched from westerns to crime with the publication of
The Big Bounce. During the 1970s and 1980s he developed a devoted
following with his novels Fifty-two Pickup, City Primeval, Stick and
LaBrava. When Glitz was published in 1985, it became
Leonard's "breakout" bestseller; he began to receive long-overdue
attention, including a Newsweek cover story. Each of his novels
since then—Bandits, Touch, Freaky Deaky, Killshot, Get
Shorty, Maximum Bob, Rum Punch, Pronto, Riding the Rap, Out of Sight and
Cuba Libre —has been a national bestseller as well as a critical
success. Three of Leonard's books have been nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe
Award by the Mystery Writers of America: The Switch, nominated
for Best Original Paperback Novel of 1978; Split Images, for Best Novel
of 1981; and LaBrava, which won for Best Novel in 1983. Maximum Bob
was also awarded the first annual International Association of Crime
Writers' North American Hammett Prize in 1991. In 1992 the Mystery
Writers gave Leonard the Grand Master Award, which "is presented
only to individuals who, by a lifetime of achievement, have proved
themselves preeminent in the craft of the mystery and dedicated to
the advancement of the genre." Success has followed Leonard to Hollywood as well. Released in
October 1995, "Get Shorty," starred John Travolta and was an
immediate critical and commercial success; the same is true of "Out
of Sight," which starred George Clooney and was released in June
1998. Award-winning director Quentin Tarantino ("Pulp Fiction")
directed "Jackie Brown," a film based on Leonard's novel Rum Punch,
in December 1997. Tarantino also plans to bring three more Leonard
novels to the silver screen: Bandits, Freaky Deaky and
Killshot. Leonard's 34th novel, Cuba Libre, is a story of high adventure,
history, romance and nefarious undertakings in Cuba. The film rights
to the novel, which was released in February 1998, were bought by
Joel and Ethan Coen of "Fargo" fame. "Maximum Bob" was an ABC-TV
miniseries starring Beau Bridges."
from:
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/
elmoreleonard/about/
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Director:
F. Gary Gray
Cast:
John Travolta (Chili Palmer) , Uma Thurman (Edie Athens), The
Rock (Elliot Wilhelm), James Woods, Cedric the Entertainer
(Sinclair "Sin" Russell), Danny DeVito (Martin Weir), James
Gandolfini (Bear),Harvey Keitel (Nicki Carr), Vince Vaughn
(Raji), Andre 3000, Kimberly J. Brown, Debi Mazar, Christina Milian (Linda
Moon), Robert Pastorelli (Joe Loop), Steven Tyler (cameo).
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