Quentin Tarantino his next effort, Tarantino paid homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s with "Jackie Brown" (1997), an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel "Rum Punch". "Kill Bill", a highly stylized "revenge flick" in the cinematic traditions of Kung fu films, Japanese martial arts, Spaghetti Westerns and Italian horror, followed six years later, and was released as two films: "" in 2003 and "" in 2004. Tarantino next directed "Death Proof" in 2007, as part of a double feature with friend Robert Rodriguez, under the collective title "Grindhouse". His long-postponed "Inglourious Basterds", which tells the fictional alternate history story of two
Elmore Leonard great-grandchildren. Commended by critics for his gritty realism and strong dialogue, Leonard sometimes took liberties with grammar in the interest of speeding the story along. In his essay "Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing" he said: "My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it." He also hinted: "I try to leave out the parts that readers tend to skip." Elmore Leonard has been called "the Dickens of Detroit" because of his intimate portraits of people from that city, though he said, "If I lived in Buffalo, I'd write about