Local boy makes good.
 

Never thought I'd ever use "jack Olsen" and "GQ" in the same sentence, but here I go.

Our very own "Golden Boy" Jack Olsen is featured in an article in GQ magazine this month. It's an article about successful screenwriters who have as yet been unproduced. They chose Jack exclusively for the photoshots due to his rugged good looks and smokin' hot sex appeal. (Jack's words, not mine) :) (kidding! I'm just kidding!)

Anyway, it's a very good article, and it portrays Jack in a very good light. I have a whole new respect for him. He's evidently very humble, because to hear him talk, you'd never know how talented and successful he is. I always suspected he was talented, simply because the kid is flippin' sharp and insightful. But, you all know that already from some of his more famous posts here. Always seems to sum things up perfectly when the rest of us are struggling to put our finger on it.

Anyway, go to a newsstand and check it out. Pretty cool. :cool:

No kidding.. that's great.. what an Up feeling.. fantastic

Damn... and here I thought (while reading the first few lines) that finally someone has seen the light and did a feature on his wonderful car. I guess it's just a Pelican perspective.

Either way, that's great news. Congratulations to you, Jack-O. Looks like you're on your way. It's about time that ride got it's own studio parking spot. Good luck.

Congratulations Jack,
But I must say I'm not surprized at all.

It will be fun watching you young guy's build your careers.
Good luck to you all. :)

Oh and by the way I'm interested in a future job exercising a car collection :rolleyes: SmileWavy

Jack, glad to hear about your article....I am sure you will be produced soon....If your screen plays are half as good as your posts are here.....Jacks fleet of Porsches will someday make Sienfield envious :)

Any relation to the Jack Olsen who wrote Detective novels???

Don't forget he's a nice guy too! I've only met him a few times, but he's always been very friendly.

Ataboy Jack.

werd.........congrats jack.
what month issue?........aug or sept?

Thanks, guys. It's not an article about my car, although you'll see I got them to mention it in the first paragraph.

Since I scanned it for my parents to read, you can read the article here.

And Mike, I'm not related to the Jack Olsen who wrote true-crime novels, but I knew him (he died about a year ago) because we sometimes used to get each others' emails. Oddly, he was a fan of early 911's, too. I think he had three of them in his lifetime.

As cool (and strange) as it is to have my picture in a magazine like GQ, I'm more excited about an upcoming feature about BB2 in Excellence -- and another one a month or so later in Grassroots Motorsports.

That is so cool! Not as cool as your 911 though Jack! ;)

it's a weird business.
I was very close friends with a brilliant NYC producer before a sad thing happened.. he was a few years older than me and had a wide field of experience.. from crisis management at Dow, to flying into Mexico to brainwash for 8hr a political leader so he could give a 15min interview, to starting up MTV.
although I never enjoyed, nor wanted to enjoy the social politics involved in the business one thing was clear.
It's A Weird Business..............Ron

Interesting insight into your world Jack, thanks.

It's only a mterr of time till your name gets on the credits. Great job Jack.

Cool article Jack. So how long have you been 39? ;)

I look forward to seeing your credits on the screen. Can you tell what some of your uncredited films are so we can see them?

Youll' always get credit here Jack. Sounds like you have a great attitude, perhaps with some of that hard earned money you could afford office space indoors somewhere. I know it doesn't rain much down there and writing updates to the "maps to the stars houses" on street corners pays the bills, but.....come on Jack! your better than that.

Way to go Jack. Just keep an eye out for Ben Affleck.

Great article Jack! I always had a feeling that there was more to you than just a Porsche fanatic......Now we all know!

Man...Did I ever choose the wrong line of work...But then, I have no talent :(

LOL

Interesting. (thanks for the link, Jack)

Though GQ's slant, saying it's seemingly strange for one to make money on an still-born project . . .what were their words?. . . "In any other industry, this would be an inconceivable phenomenon . . ."

Well, apparently GQ knows nothing of my Product Development world. (people get paid, and few products "stick".)
For that matter, had GQ somehow NOT noticed all the wealth given 1990's start-ups? "CEO's" were taking in great money, with far less than a half-baked product.

In the end, I suppose those "CEO's" were very much like Jack. . . selling a good story.

If you don't mind my asking Jack, what did you do to pay the bills before this whole screen writing thing took off for you?

Also, did you get solicited to do this article or is this a bit of sly publicity on the part of your people?

Congratulations Jack. Interesting that so many writers turned down the article. In my (ignorant of the industry) mind I would think any press that would increase your name recognition would be a good thing.

It seems like any trade where you get paid a lot, but have to wait, wonder, and worry about the next gig has got add a bit of stress to life. I guess eventually you build up a nest egg and get some sense of security.

I was just discussing a screen play idea with a friend yesterday, but after reading that article it seems I'd be better off with lottery tickets.

Congratulations Jack...Ill have to check it out.

I havent read GQ though..since they did that hatchet-job story on me a few years back... guess Ill have to make an exception. ;)

Cool article. Interesting working conditions that you have there, typing right out on the street. Do you get inspiration from the passers-by?

CAA Agent...? hmmm interesting. A friend of mine's wife is an agent at CAA here in LA...

Wow how cool this is for you Jack! I'm still new to the board and haven't had a chance to get to learn all the people here. However, there is one thing that I learned quickly and that is Jack's got an awsume car. Now I can appreciated your hard work you've put in your car and the hard work you do every day for a job.

I just have one question, are you sure you didn't get the article written about you because you have a way cool car? (just joking)

Congratulations for the recognition!!! What a wonderful accomplishment.

Ron Fitz

Now it all makes sense. The way he pushes himself at the track, the instant and purposeful resurrection of Black Beauty.

Jack Olsen is a grinder.

This is a character trait of most of the successful people I know. Tenacity, resilience and hard work. Sixteen unproduced screenplays and no sign of slowing down. Congratulations Jack!

Tyson, warn us the next time you include a comment like "Smokin' hot sex appeal" about a forum contibutor! I'm still cleaning the grapes off the screen that I was chewing when I read that !!

(And I'm not saying that Jack does or doesn't posess any of the above attributes!)

Although he seems like an A1 good guy from my exposure to him.

Anyway, thanks for the link Jack, illuminating stuff. I think that the bottom line is public credit for ones work, and the actual mass broadcasting of that work. I can think of many businesses, and general situations where that is the case.

The product design and development biz, as mentioned above, is one. So many good ideas and products have never seen the light of day for a gazillion reasons, but a lack of available development funds in the hands of enlightened visionaries is high on the list.

And of course there are billions of other examples of the injustice of life, but as Jack points out, he has manuevered himself into a position where he does what he loves, is well rewarded financially, and is able to pursue the things in life that the financial rewards afford him, and that there are plenty others, talented as well, who struggle without the rewards.

Good job, Jack, let's hope for the "breakthrough", but glad you can enjoy what you have in the meantime.

I've seen surveys where people are asked if they were given the choice would they choose fame without fortune, or fortune without fame. I'm always amazed at how many would choose the fame!

Very cool Jack. I look forward to seeing your name in lights as well - just as Paul said, it's only a matter of time.

Don

The no-credit thing has always amazed me. You have guys in Hollywood who bring donuts to the craft services table getting a credit, but writers on a film don't. You guys need a better union :). You'd think they could think of somthing like "Assistant Writer" or something so as not to "dilute the importance of the main contributor".

I know a writer who was offered $45K to be credited alone, or over $200K to be one of four credited writers.

He took the $45K.

On his next job he got $1.3 million and co-executive producer credit.

He went on to do about a half dozen movies with budgets north of $20 million -- without B.O. success...

Now, he can't get his phone calls returned.

You can go from zero to hero to zero pretty fast in this town.

Sounds like you have the solid basis of a long and solid career, though, Jack.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/kao11.gif Bravo, Jack! And thanks for posting the piece...GQ not exactly on the racks of this blue collar town!

I think if Jack were interested in getting credit and fame, he'd be writing novels. But from what I've gathered in talking to him, he really loves writing screenplays.
That, and apparently there is no money in writing novels, and Jack has a Porsche/Track addiction. That, and it is flippin' expensive to live in L.A.

From reading the article, many people might conclude that Jack is a "rich guy". Well, I know him pretty well, and from what I know, he's probably middle-of-the-pack on this board in regard to wealth. He doesn't live lavishly or have a huge mansion. He has a nice house in a good neighborhood, and some nice cars. But to live here, you have to have some serious coin to be considered "rich". I can't imagine what kind of taxes he must pay. I think those paychecks come in a lump sum, and he has to go for very long periods with no income at all. Weird business.

And before you go thinking it's "easy money', just think how stressed you were in college trying to finish that term paper. Now do that every couple of weeks, (progress deadlines) and the finished product has to be really good. Just try writing a story that's even remotely entertaining. This is very difficult stuff. Hell, I couldn't even write book reports. I'm in awe of that kind of talent, and they get almost no credit. That all goes to the actors and directors.

I think I'll stick to being a poor greasemonkey.

Not to worry, Tyson; I think Jack (among others) is in awe of your kind of "poor greasemonkey" abilities.
. . .it all balances out in the end.;)

everybody wants what they haven't got.

Congrats Jack...it's a tough business. One of my guys at work is a still-aspiring screen writer. We're fairly well connected with the Cinema School ties, but even if you have an in here or there it is amazingly capricious. Talent, timing, and luck are all necessary.

Reminds me of the music biz. Well, except the talent part...that's optional.

generally Yes.
the DiNero, James Woods, Scorsase older NYC crowd is a little different.. and there is a bunch of them that moved to Hollywood.. it's kind of an eyeball greeting without saying "hello".

Jack can we move this to off topic! LOL Just kid'n. Congrats on the article. The entertainment bizz is a definate eat or be eaten business. Its good to see you succeeding at your craft.

I was in the music bizz ( country music singer-no laughs please) in the early 90's and even had a single that charted top 40 but it takes a certain breed to hang in there and keep chasing the dream.

I cant wait to see your name in credits on the BIG SCREEN someday soon!

I'm in the presence of greatness!

Thanks Glen, that makes me feel better. :)

John, a top 40 country hit? That's cool!

Thanks Tyson. I have alot of respect for people who keep pushing for their dream like Jack. I bowed out because in the performer side of entertainment you have to do alot of conforming to what producers have envisioned you as becoming. Im not the conformist type and just couldnt swallow what the marketing "guys" had in store for me. Mistake on my part? maybe. I had fun, met alot of quote "famous people", learned alot and it was a great experience. But... you couldnt let your own creativity flow. Like I said the entertainment business is definately a different world and it takes somebody unique and very sure of who they are and where they come from to make it.

Sounds like Jack is da man!

Obviously this comment isnt directed towards Jack, because Ive never read his work...

However....with as many writes and rewrites going on....its amazing how crappy most of these movies end up becoming...Most mainstream stuff is just cliche ridden crap with very little substance and lots of flash.

Well Sonic, it still sells, so why improve it? :rolleyes: It's not going to get any better either. Check out this article. .

That's because of the rewrites. The studio will say, "can't do that, it will cost 2 million to make it snow" etc. In order to appeal to a wide audience, it gets narrowed down to fit just like every other movie out there.

I guarantee Jack's best drafts were probably the first drafts. Then it gets watered down to something the studios can make more cheaply, and more easily sold to the masses. It's a business. Look at the 996 versus the air cooled 911's. Same thing happened there.

Hey, I just put this thread on-topic!