Justified - [US] ** Spoilers **

What Would Elmore Do?
That's what "Justified" creator and executive producer Graham Yost asks himself and his writing team everyday as they build on crime novelist Elmore Leonard's short story "Fire in the Hole" to create the new FX series starring Timothy Olyphant.
"Justified," premiering March 16 at 10, features Olyphant as one of Elmore's most popular characters, Raylan Givens, a deputy U.S. marshal who only shoots to kill. While "Fire in the Hole" was the guideline for the series pilot, it was on Yost's shoulders to extend Leonard's vision through the rest of the season.
"That was the thing that was most frightening. Could I hit that same tone?" Yost told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour Sunday. "I think we're doing a good job."
Leonard is credited as an executive producer on the series, but he says that's more of an honorary position.
"I'm game," Leonard said. "I'm ready to come up with anything they want."
Yost says the reasons for adapting "Fire in the Hole" as a series include the fact it's set in Kentucky, a location you don't see often on TV; Leonard's sense of character and humor; and the element of unexpected violence.
"I like the entertainment value of the show," said Yost. "I thought it would be a change of pace for FX a little bit in that, while it's a violent show, Raylan Givens is a hero. He's a good guy, and you like him, and you're rooting for him."
"I like the fact that [Raylan is] not a yeller," Yost added. "He just tells it like it is, and that's just the way it's going to be."
Olyphant, whom we last saw in FX's "Damages" and previously on HBO's "Deadwood," doesn't mind being typecast as the aggressive, brooding type, though he does think Raylan is a significant departure from Seth Bullock of "Deadwood."
"Both characters wear hats, but after that, they really start to become their own thing," Olyphant said. "I think that anyone who knows Elmore's work, there's a delicateness to it, and a tone to it, that's just so appealing to me. It's so fun."