Learning from Movies: Get Shorty

“Look at me. I'm thinking, You're mine. I fuckin' own you. What I'm not doing is 

feeling anything about it one way or the other. You understand? You're not a person 

to me, you're a name in my collection book, a guy owes me money, that's all.”

In 1995, Barry Sonnenfeld got roped into directing a movie from an Elmore Leonard book.

He wasn’t the studio’s first choice.

They wanted Quentin Tarantino, but he waited two more years to adapt an Elmore Leonard work (Jackie Brown, if you’re taking notes).

Instead, the studio got Barry Sonnenfeld, and we got Elmore Leonard’s personal favorite adaptation of his writing, Get Shorty.

Humor and lessons after the break.

• In Miami, the weather is whatever Tommy Carlo needs it to be.
• Don’t say any more than you have to, if that.
• Stay focused. If you came to get your coat, don’t chit-chat with the guy who owns it. Break his nose and get your coat.
• You don’t want to break anybody’s nose? Then don’t get the coat.
• Most people die in their beds, so if you sleep in your recliner, or in the booth of a coffee shop, you could live forever.
• “E.g.” means “for example.” “I.e.” means “in other words.”
• The Oldsmobile Silhouette is the Cadillac of minivans.
• Trying to tell someone that you fucked up without sounding stupid is very, very, hard to do.
• I once asked this literary agent what kind of writing paid the best. He said, "Ransom notes."
• "I'll think about it" means nothing in L.A.
• Say what you mean. If you want Martin Weir, go get Martin Weir.
• Friends don't hit each other... unless they have to.
• What is the point of living in L.A. if you're not in the movie business?
• You don't know me, you only think you do.
• I'm the one telling you how it is.
• I'd get an attendant to open all the lockers and look for what I want, and then I'd get the right guy.
• They say the smog is the reason L.A. has such beautiful sunsets.
• Movie stars, they never pick up the check. They have no idea what things cost. Of course, most of them don't know their phone number, and a lot don't know their zip code.
• Movie stars can never order off the menu. They have to think of something they just have to have that's not on the menu.
• Robert Mitchum played the drunk in El Dorado. Dean Martin played the drunk in Rio Bravo. Basically, it was the same part. Now John Wayne, he did the same in both. He played John Wayne.

Yesterday, you were a loan shark. Today, you’re a movie producer. You still have to smile at all the stupid comments, so it’s not that different. The only question you have to ask yourself is: Which one do you like better?