Brian Helgeland
Brian Helgeland
Brian Thomas Helgelandis an American screenwriter, film producer and director. He is most known for writing the screenplays for L.A. Confidential, Mystic River, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. Helgeland also wrote and directed 42, a biopic of Jackie Robinson, and Legend, about the rise and fall of the Kray twins...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth17 January 1961
CountryUnited States of America
long credit scripts
Because I've been at it so long and very steadily, I have a lot of credits, but I probably have twice as many scripts that were never made for whatever reason.
two years scripts
In my own experience, the scripts that I wrote, if they didn't go within two years and become a film, they never went and no one ever came looking for them.
years two scripts
It's always once the script's done in the first two years if it doesn't get going somehow or another, I've never had an old script that someone's made later on.
writing people trying
I know a lot of directors have a whole staff of people trying to find their next film for them. I always just end up writing mine.
funny
I always think any circumstances can be funny. Not that I'm irresponsible, but when things go wrong, I always come up with a joke or think of something funny to say.
adaptation felt guardian loves met novel original since staying true work
Working on an adaptation is not as satisfying, because it's not your original work: you're interpreting. With 'L.A. Confidential,' I loved the book. In that case, I felt I was guardian of the work, staying as true to the novel as I could. I've since met the novelist, and he loves the movie and the script.
stand
It's such an egotistical thing to be able to just stand there and say, 'Action!' It's like being a little mini-god.
blowing directing ninety percent practical putting
You can write anything you want on paper, like blowing up the bridge on the River Kwai, but when you actually have to do that as a director, it's not the same. Ninety percent of directing is not creative - it's putting the theoretical into the practical world.
aware cool guy newman paul reads riot separate
I think 'Cool Hand Luke' was probably the first movie in which I was aware of the writing as its own separate thing. It was that speech when the guy reads Paul Newman the riot act. The speech about going in the box.
again dug hit
If you write an original, it's like you went in and dug a well, and you hit oil. But an adaptation, it's like the oil well's on fire, and they bring you in to put the fire out and get it working again - or something like that.
amusing ignores mean people start throw version
I think when I start out writing, I always try to write the version of the movie that I want to go see. I don't mean it in a way that ignores the audience, but I really set out to make a movie that I want to see and that, hopefully, other people will want to go see it. So whatever's amusing to me, I guess, I throw it all in there.
broad constant cottage great insurance middle money spending studio
The studio is spending great amounts of money, and they want some insurance they will get money back. They go for the middle of the road, broad in appeal. It's restrictive. It's a constant struggle, but if you give in, you're just making cottage cheese, and that's the end of it.
across angeles bookstore conceived ended growing guide knowing los loved movies realizing
I was in a bookstore one afternoon, and I stumbled across this book called 'A Guide to Film Schools.' I always loved movies growing up and had never even conceived that it was something you could do for a living. Realizing most of them were in Los Angeles and knowing that was warm, I ended up applying.
catalog head less plot until written
I'm not like a Sears Catalog of ideas. I don't have that many ideas. I've more or less written them over the years. Usually, I come up with a situation or a character, and it rattles around in my head until the story or the plot emerges.