Brian Helgeland | |
---|---|
Born | Brian Thomas Helgeland January 17, 1961 Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
Alma mater | University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Loyola Marymount University |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1988–present |
Notable work | L.A. Confidential Mystic River |
Awards | Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay L.A. Confidential (1997) |
Brian Thomas Helgeland (born January 17, 1961) [1] is an American screenwriter, film producer, and director. He is best known for writing the screenplays for the films L.A. Confidential and Mystic River . [2] He also wrote and directed the films 42 , a biopic of Jackie Robinson, and Legend , about the rise and fall of the infamous London gangsters the Kray twins. His work on L.A. Confidential earned him the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Helgeland was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to Norwegian-born parents Aud-Karin and Thomas Helgeland, and was raised in nearby New Bedford, Massachusetts. He majored in English at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth before following his father's work fishing scallop.
One cold winter day in 1985 made Helgeland consider another job, after finding a book about film schools.
Helgeland eventually settled on a career in film, considering his love for movies. He applied for the film school at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, as it was the only one which could accept him in the middle of the semester. [3] [4] [5] [6]
Helgeland's agent arranged him a meeting with Rhet Topham, who had an idea for a horror comedy film but was having difficulty writing it. The resulting film was 976-EVIL , which the duo managed to sell for $12,000. [6] 976-EVIL marked the directorial debut of Freddy Krueger portrayer Robert Englund, who went on to recommend Helgeland as New Line Cinema wanted to do a new A Nightmare on Elm Street film. Helgeland was paid $70,000 to do what would become A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master . Both films were released in 1988, with The Dream Master hitting theaters earlier. Another script, Highway to Hell , earned Helgeland $275,000 and got a film release in 1992. [7] In 1990, Helgeland and Manny Coto sold a script, The Ticking Man, for $1 million, but the film was never made. [8]
In 1998, Helgeland won both an Academy Award (for Best Adapted Screenplay with L.A. Confidential ) and a Razzie (for The Postman ) the same year. Only one person had previously achieved the dubious feat (Alan Menken in 1993), and only one other (Sandra Bullock in 2010) has achieved it since. He accepted the Razzie and became only the fourth person in its history to be personally presented with the statuette. He keeps the statues of both the Oscar and the Razzie on his mantle as "a reminder of Hollywood's idealistic nature and unrealistic expectations." [6] [9]
Helgeland wrote and directed the films Payback (1999), A Knight's Tale (2001), The Order (2003), 42 (2013) and Legend (2015). He has worked with director Clint Eastwood twice, in 2002 on Blood Work , and in 2003 on Mystic River , for which he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, and has written an as yet unproduced adaptation of Moby-Dick .
In 2004, Helgeland co-wrote the screenplay for the major motion picture The Bourne Supremacy , for which he was uncredited. [10] In early 2008, he was attached to shape the script of the thriller Green Zone [11] after screenwriter Tom Stoppard had to drop out, [12] again collaborating with director Paul Greengrass, whom he worked with on The Bourne Supremacy, as well as reuniting with actor Matt Damon, who played Jason Bourne/David Webb. Helgeland wrote the screenplay for the remake of The Taking of Pelham 123 , replacing screenwriter David Koepp. The film was released on June 12, 2009. [13]
On May 4, 2017, HBO announced that Helgeland is one of four writers working on a potential pilot for a Game of Thrones spin-off. In addition to Helgeland, Carly Wray, Max Borenstein, and Jane Goldman are also working on potential pilots. [14] Helgeland has been working and communicating with George R. R. Martin, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire , the series of novels upon which the original series is based. [15] Former Game of Thrones showrunners D. B. Weiss and David Benioff would also be executive producers for whichever project is picked up by HBO. [15] [16]
Helgeland and his wife Nancy have two sons. [17]
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1988 | A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master | No | Yes | No | |
976-EVIL | No | Yes | No | ||
1992 | Highway to Hell | No | Yes | Yes | |
1995 | Assassins | No | Yes | No | |
1997 | L.A. Confidential | No | Yes | No | Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay |
Conspiracy Theory | No | Yes | No | ||
The Postman | No | Yes | No | Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay | |
1999 | Payback | Yes | Yes | No | |
2001 | A Knight's Tale | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
2002 | Blood Work | No | Yes | No | |
2003 | Mystic River | No | Yes | No | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay |
The Order | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
2004 | Man on Fire | No | Yes | No | |
2009 | The Taking of Pelham 123 | No | Yes | No | |
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant | No | Yes | No | ||
2010 | Green Zone | No | Yes | No | |
Robin Hood | No | Yes | No | ||
2013 | 42 | Yes | Yes | No | |
2015 | Legend | Yes | Yes | No | |
2020 | Spenser Confidential | No | Yes | No | |
2023 | Finestkind | Yes | Yes | No | |
2024 | The Killer | No | Yes | No |
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1989-1990 | Friday the 13th: The Series | No | Yes | Episodes: "Crippled Inside", "Mightier Than the Sword" |
1996 | Tales from the Crypt | Yes | Yes | Episode: "A Slight Case of Murder" |
L.A. Confidential is a 1997 American neo-noir crime film directed, produced, and co-written by Curtis Hanson. The screenplay by Hanson and Brian Helgeland is based on James Ellroy's 1990 novel, the third book in his L.A. Quartet series. The film tells the story of a group of LAPD officers in 1953, and the intersection of police corruption and Hollywood celebrity. The title refers to the 1950s scandal magazine Confidential, portrayed in the film as Hush-Hush.
The Golden Raspberry Awards is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic failures. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, the Razzie Awards' satirical annual ceremony is preceded by its opposite, the Academy Awards, by four decades. The term raspberry is used in its irreverent sense, as in "blowing a raspberry". The statuette is a golf ball-sized raspberry atop a Super 8mm film reel atop a 35-millimeter film core with brown wood shelf paper glued and wrapped around it—sitting atop a jar lid spray-painted gold. The Golden Raspberry Foundation has claimed that the award "encourages well-known filmmakers and top-notch performers to own their bad."
The 18th Golden Raspberry Awards were held on March 22, 1998, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to recognize the worst the movie industry had to offer in 1997. This year, the film with the most nominations was Batman & Robin with 11, followed by Speed 2: Cruise Control with eight nominations, Anaconda with six nominations, The Postman with five nominations and Fire Down Below with four nominations. The film winning the most awards was The Postman, with all five categories for which it was nominated.
The Bourne Identity is a 2002 action-thriller film directed by Doug Liman and written by Tony Gilroy and William Blake Herron. Based on Robert Ludlum's 1980 novel of the same name, it is the first installment in the Bourne franchise, and the film stars Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Brian Cox, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. In the film, Jason Bourne (Damon) suffers from psychogenic amnesia and is forced to fight to unlock his identity and his mysterious connection to the CIA.
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