Neal Rubin

Leonard's 'Killshot' finally hits a few theaters

The latest movie version of an Elmore Leonard novel opens next week. Look for it at a theater near somebody other than you.

Leonard, who doesn't kid himself or anybody else about these things, says "Killshot" is pretty good. It's been locked in a movie company's attic for 2 1/2 years, but will finally see "limited release" -- industry shorthand for "a few screens, but not enough that we'll have to give the writer more money" -- on Jan. 23.

He says "Killshot," based on one of his favorites among his 40-plus books, was buried by the Weinstein Co., then re-edited, un-re-edited, and reburied because Harvey Weinstein didn't like it.

In one of those maneuvers that seem perfectly logical in the movie business, it's being unearthed because one of the stars recently received strong reviews for an entirely different film. But it's not scheduled for release in Metro Detroit, where Leonard lives, or Cape Girardeau, Mo., where some of it was filmed, or in enough other cities to make an impact.

Basically, it's being set up to fail, but that's not the concern of Leonard, 83. He says he learned years ago that once you cash the check, it's not your book anymore. It's their movie.

Besides, he has other things to ponder, like whether George Clooney will want to be Jack Foley again in the movie based on his upcoming book, "Road Dogs." And what to do with a Somali pirate in New Orleans in the book after that.

The plot's thick

"Killshot" concerns a woman (Diane Lane) who goes into witness protection with her husband (Thomas Jane) after she happens upon an introspective French-Canadian hitman (Mickey Rourke) doing something he shouldn't have. The hitman and his partner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) find them, and further violence ensues.

It's directed by John Madden ("Shakespeare in Love"), which should have been enough to put it in theaters on schedule in 2006. Instead, various plans have called for it to be drop-kicked straight to DVD or shown on cable TV.

What saved it, to the extent it's been saved, was Rourke's stellar performance in "The Wrestler." He's hot, so anything he once touched becomes at least lukewarm.

Madden brought a print to a screening room in Southfield last spring, and Leonard wasn't thunderously impressed with Jane. Otherwise, he and his extended family enjoyed it. Then they all went into Birmingham for dinner.

Clooney in another?

They also rather enjoyed Clooney a decade ago in "Out of Sight," in which he played a bank robber who excuses himself from prison and then finds himself attracted to Jennifer Lopez as the U.S. Marshal sent to drag him back.

The Clooney character returns in "Road Dogs," due out in May from HarperCollins.

Leonard says his publisher has gently complained when he sets books in the past, though as he points out, World War II Detroit "was the time I was in." So he put "Road Dogs" in the here-and-now, and also brought back two other familiar characters, Cuban refugee and all-around louse Cundo Rey ("La Brava") and psychic Dawn Navarro ("Riding the Rap").

Clooney has not read the book, Leonard says, because he has other projects lined up. Another actor could play Foley, but that's a tap-dance for several reasons, since Clooney is identified with the role and Universal Pictures owns the character.

While that gets sorted out, Leonard is home in Bloomfield Village, writing diligently from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in longhand on his usual unlined yellow pads.

So far, he has an American traveling to Djibouti to shoot a documentary on Somali pirates, and a nattily dressed pirate showing up in Louisiana 60 days later.

"I don't know yet what the ending will be like," he says, "or where it's going." But experience -- his and ours -- suggests it'll be an entertaining trip.

Reach Neal Rubin at (313) 222-1874 or nrubin@detnews.com.