Brian Helgeland Filmography

Occupation:: Director, Screenwriter
Biography:: One of the only screenwriters ever to be honored with both an Oscar (for L.A. Confidential) and a Razzie (for The Postman) in the same year, writer/director Brian Helgeland showed remarkably good sportsmanship when he became only the fourth person in the history of the Razzies to voluntarily...Read More

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Nottingham

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Russell Crowe, Sienna Miller

Synopsis: Ridley Scott helms a script by Sleeper Cell scribes Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris as they tackle this revisionist take on the Robin Hood legend, which finds the noble Sheriff of Nottingham (Russell Crowe) attempting to deal with the exploits of a less than virtuous Robin Hood while gradually being Read More

1/1/09
The Taking of Pelham 123

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Denzel Washington, John Travolta, James Gandolfini

Synopsis: Tony Scott directs this remake of the Walter Matthau-starring thriller from 1978 with this Columbia Pictures production that pits a transit cop (Denzel Washington) against a group of hijackers lead by John Travolta, who take over a subway train in order to rake in a hefty ransom. David Koepp (War of the Worlds Read More

1/1/09
The Green Zone

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Matt Damon, Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Jason Isaacs, Brendan Gleeson

Synopsis: United 93 director Paul Greengrass explores the aftermath of the Iraq invasion in this feature adaptation of author Rajiv Chandrasekaran's literary expose of the same name. A one-time Baghdad bureau chief of the Washington Post, Chandrasekaran was present as American forces attempted to set up a Read More

1/1/08
Payback: Straight Up

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Mel Gibson, Gregg Henry, Maria Bello, Deborah Kara Unger, David Paymer

Synopsis: Seven years after seeing his original vision butchered under studio interference as well as his star's, director Brian Helgeland finally was given the chance to piece together his director's cut under the name Payback: Straight Up. Along with reinstating the original third Act, this version Read More

2006
Man on Fire

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Christopher Walken, Giancarlo Giannini, Radha Mitchell

Synopsis: A man whose ideals have been shattered for the last time is out for violent justice in this thriller. Creasy (Denzel Washington) is a former United State intelligence agent-turned-mercenary who has seen too much of the violence and corruption in the world and has become jaded and withdrawn. Creasy Read More

4/21/04
Mystic River

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney

Synopsis: Directed by Clint Eastwood, the mysterious drama Mystic River is based on the novel by Dennis Lehane and adapted by screenwriter Brian Helgeland. Set in an Irish neighborhood in Boston, Jimmy, Sean, and Dave are three childhood friends who are reunited after a brutal murder takes place. Reformed Read More

10/8/03
The Order

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon, Benno Fürmann, Mark Addy, Peter Weller

Synopsis: Oscar-winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland writes and directs the religious thriller The Order. Heath Ledger portrays a priest from a secret religious order called The Carolingians. He's sent to Rome to investigate the mysterious death of the head of the Carolingians, whose body was found with Read More

9/5/03
Blood Work

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Jeff Daniels, Anjelica Huston, Wanda De Jesus

Synopsis: A retired detective must battle former colleagues and his own failing health in order to bring a murderer to justice in this action drama produced and directed by its star, Clint Eastwood. Terry McCaleb (Eastwood) was one of the best and most thorough detectives at the FBI's Southern California Read More

8/9/02
A Knight's Tale

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, Rufus Sewell, Paul Bettany, Shannyn Sossamon, Laura Fraser

Synopsis: This crowd-pleasing medieval adventure tale is very loosely inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and mixes the anachronistic elements of modern-day rock music and colloquialisms with a period setting and characters. Heath Ledger stars as William Thatcher, a low-born 14th century Read More

5/11/01
Payback

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: James Coburn, Mel Gibson, Gregg Henry, Maria Bello, Deborah Kara Unger, David Paymer

Synopsis: Porter (Mel Gibson) is pulled into a heist by his old friend, Val (Brian De Palma regular, Gregg Henry). As they're stealing $130,000 in laundered drug money from Chinese Triads, no one is going to call the police. Everything goes smoothly until Porter's wife, Lynn (Deborah Kara Unger), shoots Read More

2/5/99
L.A. Confidential

Crew: Co-producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, David Strathairn, Danny DeVito

Synopsis: Based on the best-selling novel by James Ellroy, this award-winning crime drama explores both the dark side of the Los Angeles police force and Southern California's criminal underbelly in the early '50s, when Hollywood was still seen as America's capital of sophistication, glitter, and glamour. Read More

1997
Conspiracy Theory

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts, Patrick Stewart, Cylk Cozart, Stephen Kahan

Synopsis: Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson) is a New York City cab driver who seems to have absorbed every bit of crackpot information passed along as "suppressed news" that's surfaced on talk radio or the Internet in the past 20 years. Anti-United Nations militia men who are actually U.N. operatives? NASA Read More

1997
The Postman

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Kevin Costner, Will Patton, Larenz Tate, Olivia Williams, James Russo

Synopsis: Kevin Costner directed and stars in this adaptation of David Brin's science fiction novel The Postman (1985), first published in 1982 issues of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Costner's return to directing after his Oscar-winning Dances With Wolves(1990) is a futuristic epic depicting the Read More

1997
Assassins

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas, Julianne Moore, Anatoly Davydov

Synopsis: Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner helms this action-adventure yarn in which Robert Rath (Sylvester Stallone), a veteran, burned-out hit man for hire who's looking to leave his profession, meets a younger, crazier, more ambitious competitor, Miguel Bain (Antonio Banderas), who is out to best Read More

1995
Highway to Hell

Crew: Co-producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Patrick Bergin, Chad Lowe, Kristy Swanson, Adam Storke, Pam Gidley

Synopsis: This semi-spoof of the Orpheus legend stars Chad Lowe and Kristy Swanson as newlyweds whose car is pulled over by Beezelbub (Patrick Bergin), who kidnaps the girl and takes her to Hell. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

3/31/92
976-Evil

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Stephen Geoffreys, Jim Metzler, Patrick O'Bryan, Maria Rubell, Sandy Dennis

Synopsis: This underrated teen-revenge horror film starring Stephen Geoffreys (Fright Night) was the directorial debut of Robert Englund, best known as Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. Geoffreys plays Hoax, a picked-on nerd who lives with his religious-nut mother Lucy (the marvelous Sandy Dennis Read More

3/24/89
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

Crew: Screen Story, Screenwriter

Actors: Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox, Rodney Eastman, Danny Hassel, Andras Jones, Tuesday Knight, Ken Sagoes

Synopsis: This fourth trip down Freddy Lane was the most successful at the box-office, but although it has some impressive visuals, it is mostly an empty film. Credit must go to the effects team for some fine work, but otherwise, this entry from the director of Cutthroat Island (Renny Harlin) is extremely Read More

1988