Elmore Leonard Leonard also contributed one chapter (the twelfth of thirteen) to the 1996 "Miami Herald" parody serial novel "Naked Came the Manatee" (). Twenty-six of Leonard's novels and short stories have been adapted for the screen (19 as motion pictures and another seven as television programs). Aside from the short stories already noted, a number of Leonard's novels have been adapted as films, including "Get Shorty" (1990 novel, 1995 film), "Out of Sight" (1996 novel, 1998 film), and "Rum Punch" (1992 novel, 1997 film "Jackie Brown"). "52 Pick-Up" (1986 film) was first adapted very loosely into the 1984 film "The Ambassador"
Quentin Tarantino with Roger Avary as production assistants on Dolph Lundgren's exercise video, "Maximum Potential". The following year, he played the role of one of a group of Elvis impersonators in "Sophia's Wedding: Part 1", an episode in the fourth season of "The Golden Girls", which was broadcast on November 19, 1988. Tarantino received his first paid writing assignment in the early 1990s when Robert Kurtzman hired him to write the script for "From Dusk Till Dawn". In January 1992, Tarantino's neo-noir crime thriller "Reservoir Dogs"—which he wrote, directed and acted in as Mr. Brown—was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. It