Josh Olson

Josh Olson
Josh Olson at the 2008 Screenwriting Expo
Born	United States
Occupation	Screenwriter, film director

Josh Olson is an American screenwriter and director.

Olson began his career working as a production assistant in the art department on the 1987 film Masters of the Universe. In 2006, he was nominated for the British Academy Award, the Writer's Guild Award, the USC Scripter Award and the Academy Award for his adapted screenplay for A History of Violence.

In 2006, Olson was invited by author Harlan Ellison to collaborate with Ellison on an adaptation of the author's short story "The Discarded" for ABC's series, "Masters of Science Fiction." The episode stars Brian Dennehy and John Hurt, and was directed by Jonathan Frakes, and was the highest rated episode of the series. Olson is also one of the writers of a segment of the six-story "Batmanime," Gotham Knight, along with David Goyer, Brian Azzarello and others, contributing the script for "Have I Got A Story For You." He and D. B. Weiss worked on Peter Jackson's film based on the Halo video game series, but the project was later cancelled.

In 2007, Olson wrote an article called "The Life And Death Of Jesse James: An internet love mystery" about the alleged dating fraud activities of a woman named Janna St. James Priggie. The story is real and a civil action (still pending as of October 2011) was filed by the victim.

He was the first writer on Jack Reacher, for Paramount Pictures, part of the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. The film starred Tom Cruise, Robert Duvall, and Werner Herzog. Ultimately, the film was written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie.