“I spent most of my career in advertising,” says George Olson. “I had always wanted to write for movies and television, but I live in Colorado, not exactly the screenwriting mecca of North America, so I started reading scripts, screenplays, and just started writing.”
As a former copywriter and creative director, Olson his start really came from “writing bad screenplays.” He continues, “That’s the only way to eventually write good screenplays.” He read all of the big books on the subject and many interviews from Creative Screenwriting as a foundation.
“I started entering some competitions and I won a couple of screenwriting contests. There was just enough encouragement. It’s like playing golf. You can hit terrible shots the whole day, then hit one beautiful shot, and then you love the game.”
Thanks to these early wins, Olson was on a path to meet producers and pitch ideas. He eventually developed a project with Barry Sonnenfield (Men in Black) and John Turturro (The Big Lebowski). “For an advertising writer in Colorado, it was fairly heady stuff.”
One particular idea gained some traction, but Olson’s reps told him to transition it to a television idea. “I read every pilot I could get my hands on, starting writing television, and found that I loved it.” The screenwriter is best known for creating the series, Surreal Estate, a series about Real Estate agents who deal with haunted houses.
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