Elmore Leonard's Literary Legacy Will Live on in Greenwich, Stamford

As news spread in literary circles that fabled crime novelist Elmore Leonard passed away Tuesday morning from complications of a stroke, many remember his gritty manuscripts that led to several gripping movies.

Leonard died Aug. 20 at his home in Bloomfield Village, MI. He suffered a stroke earlier this month, according to the Bloomfield-Bloomfield Hills Patch, not far from Detroit where many of his 40 novels were based. Among the novels that translated into blockbuster big screen projects were Hombre, Get Shorty, Out of Sight, and Jackie Brown. 

Leonard's 1970s era novel The Switch is the basis for the indie film shot around Greenwich and Stamford in March. The star-studded cast includes Jennifer Aniston, John Hawkes, Tim Robbins, Yasiin Bey (formerly known as rapper Mos Def) and Isla Fischer.

Scenes were shot in the Chickahominy neighborhood of Greenwich as well as in the South End and Shippan neighborhoods of Stamford. While in Chickahominy, the cast and crew shot scenes of a bar fight at the Two Door Restaurant. A contemporary home on Round Hill Road was transformed into a vacation home in the Bahamas.

Dan Schechter wrote the screenplay and directed the film about two criminals (Hawkes and Bey) who help a woman (Aniston) take revenge on her husband after he refuses to pay a ransom fee when they kidnap her. The film is now titled Life of Crime, according to fandango.com.

Life of Crime is scheduled to premiere on the closing night of the 38th Toronto International Film Festival runs from Sept. 5 to 15, according to IMDb.com.