Behind the sun-baked political thriller The Ambassador (1984) lies a tangle of rights-grabbing and credit disputes that reads like a cautionary tale about 1980s independent studio practices. Elmore Leonard — the novelist whose 1974 crime book 52 Pickup was supposedly the source material — has long publicly complained that producer Menahem Golan (of Cannon Films) hired him to adapt the novel and set it in Tel Aviv, commissioned two drafts, then replaced him with another writer. When the finished picture hit screens it bore none of Leonard’s characters or situations and Leonard was not credited on the final film. Leonard’s curt assessment on his official site crystallized the grievance: Golan “hired me to adapt my novel… I wrote two drafts and then told him to get another writer… The result was The Ambassador which has nothing to do with 52 Pickup.”
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1980s
Elmore Leonard Says Menahem Golan Bought His Rights, Dumped His Scripts and Released The Ambassador Without Credit
The Ambassador (1984) / Elmore Leonard / 1980s
Behind the sun-baked political thriller The Ambassador (1984) lies a tangle of rights-grabbing and credit disputes that reads like a cautionary tale about 1980s independent studio practices. Elmore Leonard — the novelist whose 1974 crime book 52 Pickup was supposedly the source material — has long publicly complained that producer Menahem Golan (of Cannon Films) hired him to adapt the novel and set it in Tel Aviv, commissioned two drafts, then replaced him with another writer. When the finished picture hit screens it bore none of Leonard’s characters or situations and Leonard was not credited on the final film. Leonard’s curt assessment on his official site crystallized the grievance: Golan “hired me to adapt my novel… I wrote two drafts and then told him to get another writer… The result was The Ambassador which has nothing to do with 52 Pickup.”
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