A History of Violence (2005) with screenwriter Josh Olson

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes. This episode is sponsored by boutique Blu-ray label Plumeria Pictures, whose latest release is The Big Man, aka Crossing the Line, an underrated 1990 drama with a blistering lead performance by Liam Neeson, and a cast that includes Joanne Whalley, Ian Bannen, Billy Connolly, Hugh Grant, Peter Mullan and more. The Blu-ray contains not one but three new audio commentaries, from producer Stephen Woolley, director David Leland and screenwriter Don Macpherson. Check out this and other Plumeria exclusives at PlumeriaPics.co.uk and use code ROGUE10 at checkout to get 10% off storewide. For this, our 25th episode, I’m delighted to welcome Academy Award® nominated screenwriter, director, podcaster and famous non-reader of scripts Josh Olson, for a walk through A History of Violence, David Cronenberg’s 2005 adaptation of the 1997 graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke. Olson received his first Oscar® nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film, and if you’ve read the source material, it's easy to see why, as he distilled the essence from Wagner and Locke’s neo-noir page-turner – which is almost impossible not to read in a single sitting – into a film that goes fathoms deeper in its exploration of how violence infects ordinary people, as insidiously, inescapably and devastatingly as any of the physiological effects in Cronenberg’s body-horror oeuvre. I’m immensely grateful to Josh for joining me on this journey, not least because his episode-by-episode deconstruction of The West Wing in his and Dave Anthony’s podcast The West Wing Thing, was key to making lockdown bearable. I’m also a long time fan of his other podcast, The Movies That Made Me, and I’m now juggling episodes of that with episodes of his brilliant audio drama podcast Bronzeville, starring Laurence Fishburne, Lorenz Tate, Mekhi Pfeiffer, Lance Reddick and many more, with his new politics podcast The Audit. In short, it’s all Josh all the time on my podcast player. Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a tweet. We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on Twitter and/or Instagram to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases. Thanks for listening! A Synchronicity production. Conceived, written and presented by David Hughes. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja. All content © 2023 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.