JoshOlson Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If you read my posts regularly, you might be under the impression that the only movies that make me truly weak in the knees are Marvel adaptations. But my heart belongs more to rogue cops than it does superheroes, and if I could have my film wish, it would be for a renaissance of the action/thriller. And you know, I think it might be on its way ...

First comes a story from The Hollywood Reporter that Paramount has hired Josh Olson to adapt Lee Child's novel One Shot. It's the ninth in Child's Jack Reacher series -- why they aren't adapting the first, I have no idea. Now, I haven't read the series, but from all accounts Reacher is the kind of man we haven't seen onscreen since Harry Callahan or Wendell "Bud" White. And that's why Olson (who was also behind the adaptation of A History of Violence) took the job: "I had just finished watching the first two Dirty Harry movies on Blu-ray. And I thought, 'No one's making movies like that anymore.' It coincided perfectly. It's just the kind of movie that I haven't seen in a while. It's a tough, smart, action-oriented thriller." (In a really funny twist, I was watching Dirty Harry last weekend and thinking the same thing -- and also how much I want to date Clint Eastwood circa 1971.)

Obviously, One Shot isn't enough to revive the genre, but Entertainment Weekly reports that rumors continue to gather around Lethal Weapon 5, particularly with Shane Black's Cold Warrior catching everyone's interest. Seems he's down for writing and directing the fifth installment, though all waits on the approval of Mel Gibson. I'm intrigued by the new story details, as it introduces a pair of young New York cops. Now, if Lethal Weapon 5 was more of a reboot/origin story for two new characters who could carry some films of their own, well, that would be pretty darn cool.

Novelist Dennis Lehane, whose Hollywood career once seemed to have begun and ended with the successful adaptation of his Mystic River, has seen his star rise rather dramatically over the past few months. It's already been announced that Ben Affleck's directorial debut, Gone, Baby, Gone, is based on a Lehane novel (from Clint Eastwood to Affleck - I'm sure he's so proud), and now comes the news that Oscar-nominated A History of Violence scribe Josh Olson has written and will direct Until Gwen, a film based on a short story by Lehane. The story, which Olsen describes as "one of the best...I've ever read," is "a dark crime drama that explores a relationship between a father who is a con man and a son who has been raised on the edges of society." Among other things, the story deals with the issue of identity, which is one of the reasons for Olsen's interest.

Olsen's screenplay is already finished and has won praise from Lehane; the movie is about to star casting and will shoot later this year with a budget of less than $10 million.