Don Cheadle To Direct Tishomingo Blues Film

Posted on February 27, 2002

Bestselling author Elmore Leonard is thrilled that Don Cheadle will be making his directorial debut with Tishomingo Blues (William Morrow). Set in Tunica, Mississippi, Tishomingo Blues features classic Leonard characters. Among the cast of oddballs and schemers are Denis Lenahan, a boy-next-door type high-diver slightly past his prime and Robert Taylor, a smooth-talking, gun-toting, blues-loving Detroit operator -- whom Cheadle may play. The author calls his 37th and most recent book his "favorite so far."

Still going strong at 76-years old, Leonard says that when writing he sometimes casts his characters as if he were casting a movie. The bestselling author says "while I was writing the character of Robert Taylor I saw Don Cheadle."

Leonard, who has been named one of the producers of the movie by British production company Film Four, has been a fan of Cheadle's since the actor played the part of the antagonist in his Out of Sight, which was directed by Steven Soderbergh. The author is eager to see how the rest of the movie is cast.