Jason Keller (playwright)

Jason Keller (born December 12, 1968, Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has also been credited under the anagram pen name of Arnell Jesko. Keller is a New Harmony Writing Fellowship recipient, a two time Bronx New Voices nominee, a Satellite Award nominee for Best Original Screenplay, an Oglethorpe Award nominee and the recipient of an IFJA Hoosier Award.

Keller's father is former major league pitcher Ron Keller, who played for the Minnesota Twins.

Career
Keller began his screenwriting career by writing Marc Forster's film Machine Gun Preacher, which was released by Relativity Media in 2011. Keller went on to write Tarsem Singh's film Mirror Mirror, starring Julia Roberts, as well as Mikael Håfström's 2013 action film Escape Plan, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. He is also the executive producer of the fifth movie in the Die Hard franchise, A Good Day to Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis. Most recently, Keller wrote Ford v. Ferrari, which was directed by James Mangold and starred Matt Damon and Christian Bale. The movie was released in November, 2019 by 20th Century Fox. The movie was nominated for four Academy Awards, including a Best Picture nomination.

In 2022, it was announced that Keller wrote the upcoming biopic about famed female Indycar driver Janet Guthrie who became the first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 in 1977. Hilary Swank will star in the film which is being produced by Keller, Joel David Moore, Rishi Bajaj and Philip Schneider. The film is planned for a mid-2024 start.

Keller is also set to make his directorial debut helming the feature film 'La Sombra' (The Shadow), from an original screenplay by Keller to be financed by Sherborne Media Finance. The film will be produced by Luillo Ruiz (Driven), Gary Raskin (Midway) and Alastair Burlingham (Greenland) and Academy Award nominated producer Robbie Brenner (Dallas Buyers Club, Barbie (film)). A fall 2024 production is currently planned with casting underway.

With co-writer Eric Pfeffinger, Keller wrote The Paladin which he is producing with David Dobkin and Robbie Brenner. The Paladin is based on a novel by Brian Garfield and tells the true story of how the British government orchestrated a monumental shift in World War 2 through a top-secret program which turned a 15 year old boy into one of England’s deadliest assassins. In June 2015 it was reported that Keller’s 2006 Black List script "A Willing Patriot" was bought by Open Road Films and is expected to go into production in 2020 with Martin Zandvliet (“Land of Mine”) directing and Liam Neeson starring.

In 2011, it was announced that Keller would collaborate with director Matt Reeves on the adaptation of the Justin Cronin novel The Passage with Ridley Scott producing.

Filmography

 * Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie (2002)
 * Machine Gun Preacher (2011)
 * Mirror Mirror (2012)
 * Escape Plan (2013) (using the pen name Arnell Jesko)
 * Ford v Ferrari (2019)