Speed is one of those films we watched with our mouths agape while growing up, and still pause our channel surfing to watch for a few minutes when it’s on TV. And while we all agree that Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock made a cute couple, we usually never pause to think of the person who wrote those characters for the screen.
Meet the writer Graham Yost, who is also the person behind Broken Arrow and Hard Rain , and the TV screenwriter behind Justified . The crime drama show, which is based on Elmore Leonard’s short story, Fire in the Hole , is close to Graham’s heart, because, “I’m a big fan of Elmore Leonard. I started reading his books back in the 1980s. And I liked the idea that this was set in Kentucky and not New York or Los Angeles. But most of all, I love the main character Raylan Givens.”
Excerpts from a telephonic interview:
How did you develop the character of Raylan Givens? How similar is he to the book version?
Pretty similar. In the books, Raylan is older. He’s in his 50s. But we loved Tim Olyphant for the part. And when Elmore saw Tim playing Raylan, he said that Tim was perhaps the best embodiment of a character that he had written. So that was as high praise as you can get.
How involved were you in the making of the show?
I’m what’s called a showrunner in TV. I was very much involved; I was running the writer’s room. The actors have a lot of input. I understand that you’re now getting season one, and we were all just getting to know each other then. Right from the beginning, Tim had a lot of notes and we would talk sometimes and work it out.
What can Indian viewers look forward to in the show?
I’m Canadian and I grew up outside the US, always watching American movies. I would especially watch Westerns. There are elements of a Western in Justified . Elmore never agreed with me, but then, Raylan wears a cowboy hat and boots and comes into town with his long coat and wants to set things right — almost like an old town marshall. I don’t know if Indian viewers have the same kind of attraction to that kind of story, but it does have international appeal.
Over the past year, most shows are being telecast almost simultaneously in India. Is there an effort to make content with a more international reach?
It’s interesting that you would say that, because I’m working on a show now for Amazon. As with other premium services, shows are released all around the world, all at once. There is an effort to create shows in different cultures and languages around the world. Television, more than movies, is becoming an international media. I think that’s pretty interesting.
We hope that Justified is a big hit in India. Then, maybe someone in India will say, “Let’s do an Indian version of this.” They can invite me over to India, which I have been wanting to do for 20 or 30 years now. Now that will be a really good thing!
Justified will air on AXN starting January 30, Monday to Friday at 11 p.m.
