Formerly a commercial fisherman in his native New England, Brian Helgeland changed his career path by moving to L.A. and inaugurated his screenwriting career by collaborating on the scripts for two horror movies: Renny Harlin's "A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master" (1988), starring Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, and Englund's "976-EVIL" (1988). Sticking with the same genre, Helgeland received his first solo screenwriting credit for "Highway to Hell" (1992) before beginning his relationship with Richard Donner as co-writer of the simple-minded action-thriller "Assassins" (1995) and flying solo on the disappointing "Conspiracy Theory" (1997), which teamed Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts in a muddled thriller. He fared better as co-writer and co-producer of Curtis Hanson's critically-lauded adaptation of James Ellroy's noirish crime saga, "L.A. Confidential" but again stumbled as one of the writers of the futuristic drama "The Postman" (both 1997), directed by and starring Kevin Costner. He continued his association with both Donner and Gibson, writing "Lethal Weapon 4" (1998) before moving to the director's chair with "Payback" (1999)--a Helgeland-penned remake of 1968's "Point Blank" adapted from Donald E Westlake's novel "The Hunter"--which starred Gibson.
His second foray as a writer-director was the surprise success "A Knight's Tale" (2001), in which Helgeland cast Heath Ledger in the role of a mideval swashbuckler and set the story to a soundtrack of modern arena-rock anthems. As a screenwriter, he adapted Michael Connelly's novel for the Clint Eastwood-directed crime drama "Blood Work" (2002), and Eastwood tapped him again to adapt Dennis Lehane's novel for the veteran actor's next directorial effort, the gritty, twisting and turning whodunnit "Mystic River" (2003). He also tackled an uncredited rewrite of the Joel Schumacher thriller "Phone Booth" before taking the director's chair again, lensing his own original script for "The Order" (2003), a religion-minded secret sect thriller that reunited him with his "A Knight's Tale" cast Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon and Mark Addy.