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Eric Red Delusional on Blu Ray Commentary

posted 9 years ago by rabiddog67
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Just listened to the commentary for this film, which came out in the beginning of 1989. Eric Red accuses Elmore Leonard of ripping off his movie in the novel KILLSHOT, which came out in March of 1989. Eric Red says towards the end of the commentary that no one say this film when it came out in its very limited release and authors write their books long before they see publication. Eric Red says Elmore Leonard ripped off his movie because the two hit men and an isolated farm house stuff and he has never read another Elmore Leonard novel since. Leonard's novel came out in hardcover two months after this film saw play in a few theaters, so how was Leonard even aware of it to rip it off for a novel that was certainly at the publishers before this film probably even wrapped production? I like this film and I am a fan of Eric Red, but he certainly is delusional in this claim.

[–] MsJackieO 8 years ago

The film was greenlit for production in 1986. It takes a long time for films to get made: casting, ensuring cast are available (usually booked up 2-4 years in advance), financing, assembling production crews etc. Then there's the fact that the script could have been ciculating for years before that. Scripts get passed around and it's easy to see how Leonard came across it. In a similar fashion, the script forDredd (2012) was leaked in 2008 and was used as the blueprint for The Raid which was released a few months before Dredd and so it looked like Dredd ripped off The Raid.