Early life

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 in 1985 made Helgeland consider another job, and after finding a book about film schools, eventually he settled for that, considering his love for movies. He applied for the film school at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, as it was the only one that would accept him in the middle of the semester.

Career

Helgeland's agent arranged him a meeting with Rhet Topham, who had an idea for a horror comedy film but was having a difficulty writing it. The result was 976-EVIL, which the duo managed to sell for $12,000. 976-EVIL marked the directorial debut of Freddy Krueger portrayer Robert Englund, who went on to recommend Helgeland as New Line Pictures 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.

In 1998, Helgeland won both an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (for 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."

Helgeland wrote and directed the films A Knight's Tale (2001), The Order (2003) and 42 (2013). He has worked with director Clint Eastwood twice, in 2002 on Blood Work, and in 2003 on Mystic River, for which he was Oscar nominated 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. In early 2008, he was attached to shape the script of the thriller Green Zone after screenwriter Tom Stoppard had to drop out, 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. The film was released on June 12, 2009.

Works

Films

[ Source: Wikipedia ]