Arne Olsen Dead: ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ Screenwriter Was 64

Arne Olsen, a screenwriter whose credits include 1995’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and the 1993 comedy Cop and a Half directed by Henry Winkler and starring Burt Reynolds, died from complications related to cancer Saturday, April 4, in Vancouver, Canada. He was 64.

His death was announced to Deadline by wife Dianne Olsen.

A native of Vancouver, Olsen moved to Los Angeles at age 21 to pursue screenwriting. After graduating from the American Film Institute, Olsen was a co-writer on the 1998 action film Red Scorpion starring Dolph Lundgren.

His next project, a spec script for Cop and a Half (sometimes styled as Cop & 1/2), was produced by Imagine Entertainment and released by Universal. Reynolds co-starred with young actor Norman D. Golden II in a Kindergarten Cop-style comedy about a detective who gets paired with an eight-year-old murder witness to solve the crime.

Olsen’s subsequent credits included, among others, Red Scorpion 2 (1994), All Dogs Go To Heaven 2 (1996), the 1997 TV-movie Escape from Atlantis and the 2007 horror film Hybrid starring a pre-Glee Cory Monteith.

Mighty Morphins Power Rangers: The Movie was released in 1995 by 20th Century Fox between the second and third seasons of the popular Mighty Morphins TV series.

In 2000, Olsen wrote and directed the Canadian feature film dramedy Here’s To Life! starring Eric McCormack (Will and Grace). The film was nominated for eight Genie Awards, including for actors James Whitmore and Kim Hunter, winning for its original score.

Olsen’s most recent screenwriting credit was 2018’s Distorted starring John Cusack and Christina Ricci. He also taught screenwriting at Capilano (British Columbia) University and Vancouver Film School and served as a story editor on numerous films.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by children Ryan and Alyssa.