LJWorld.com

Most filmmakers make sacrifices for their work. Brian Helgeland, the writer-director of "A Knight's Tale" took a personal loss during the sound recording sessions that took place after the film was shot.

"Heath Ledger (the film's star) knocked one of my teeth out," Helgeland recalls in a recent phone conversation from Los Angeles. "The ADR editor (who handles sounds after shooting is complete) was asking if there was any strategy for jousting. (Ledger) tried to demonstrate the strategy and accidentally hit me in the mouth. (The tooth) didn't come right out. They had to get it removed, and they put a screw in my jaw. I don't get a new tooth 'til June."

He adds, "There aren't too many post-production injuries unless the editor gets his fingers stuck in one of the film rollers. I never got hurt when I was a (commercial scallop) fisherman."

The situation that brought on Helgeland's dental nightmare is due in part to the unusual nature of the film. "A Knight's Tale" features an old European setting and a decidedly 21st century attitude. Needless to say, mounting the film, about a squire (Ledger) who tries to become a knight despite his humble origins, in the Czech Republic was about as tricky as saddling up for a jousting match.

"Lots of days we had 2,000 or 3,000 extras," he remembers. "Even if you have to move them a hundred feet, it takes a lot more time than you'd ever imagine. There were horses all over the place, armorers, guys making lances. All of the sudden you need a hundred tents. What's fun about directing something this big is that you get to create your own world and make the rules of that world."

One odd component of that world is '70s rock music. According to Helgeland, the connection between the 14th century tournament setting and the tunes of Sly and the Family Stone exists.

"The production design in a lot of ways is the straight man in the movie. We tried to make it as medieval a world as possible. The music and the costume design and some of the attitudes are more anachronistic. We were trying to announce (with music by Queen) that this is not 'your father's Oldsmobile' or your father's medieval movie. In a lot of ways the movie's about youth, identity and fighting the social system, which I thought '70s rock 'n' roll was all about. I was trying to break down the barrier and have a modern audience recognize themselves because that's what we do at sporting events."

Some detractors have accused Helgeland's music selections of going too far to meet the tests of current teens.

"The irony when I read (Todd McCarthy's review in Variety) was I wish I could have had Todd with me when I got into the arguments with Sony (the film's distributor) about getting the songs re-recorded by new bands. Any time you can get a Rare Earth song into a movie, it's a victory," he states.

Uphill battles

Helgeland knows a little about victories and defeats. After getting his start writing scripts for horror movies like "976-Evil," "A Nightmare on Elm Street 4" and "Highway to Hell," Helgeland and his partner Manny Coto (who later directed "Dr. Giggles") sold a script titled "The Ticking Man" for $1 million, only to see the film languish in development.

His first directing effort, "Payback," was a box-office hit, but the version of the film that made it to theaters was one that had been re-edited by its producer and star Mel Gibson.

"I'm actually positive one day Paramount will want to make a movie with me so badly that I can say yes only if you release the DVD of (my version of) 'Payback,'" he says.

In addition to penning scripts for "Conspiracy Theory" and "Assassins," Helgeland wound up earning Hollywood's ultimate honor when he received an Oscar for co-writing the movie version of Mission Hills, Kan.-based James Ellroy's novel "L.A. Confidential." Unfortunately, he's also received another distinction.

"The day before I won the Academy Award for 'L.A. Confidential,' I won the Golden Raspberry for the worst screenplay of the year for 'The Postman.' I'm constantly feeling that I'm going to have to prove something somewhere. I've alternated between disaster and success and never had two disasters in a row. It's when you get them in a row that you start to disappear.

"On ("A Knight's Tale"), some critics don't like it because it's not 'L.A. Confidential.' Of course, it's not. I already did 'L.A. Confidential.' I couldn't do another one as good," Helgeland says.

He also claims that the new film has more in common with its predecessors than is first apparent.

"I'm interested in rising above the perceptions people have of you," he says. "With (Russell Crowe in "L.A. Confidential"), it's 'I'm not so stupid.' With Mel Gibson in 'Conspiracy Theory,' it's 'I'm not so crazy.'"

Another altered perception Helgeland offers is of the revered author of "The Canterbury Tales," Geoffrey Chaucer. In "A Knight's Tale," Paul Bettany plays him as a flamboyant gambler with a mendacious streak.

"It was funny when we tested it," says Helgeland. "Nobody knew who Chaucer was, but they liked the character a lot. He was in some ways the audience's favorite character because he was so outrageous. He's a venerated figure ... People seem to almost entirely forget that he wrote these kind of outrageous provocative stories. Chaucer was a very populist kind of writer. He probably had as much fun with (his stories) as I did with 'A Knight's Tale.'"

Ellroy's not-so-dark places

What Chaucer would have to say about Helgeland's writing is impossible to say. What is certain is that Clint Eastwood is impressed enough with Helgeland's work to produce and direct his scripts for "Blood Work" and "Mystic River."

"When I first thought I could write movies for a living, I always thought that if I could write for Clint Eastwood or Sean Connery, I'd be a happy guy," Helgeland says. "Now to be working with him on an almost committed basis is kind of a dream come true."

Helgeland also takes pride in earning praise from the hard-to-please Ellroy. While a hero to the screenwriter, the novelist, whose latest book is "The Cold Six Thousand," refers to the people who run Hollywood as "tyrants, little babies and morons."

Helgeland recalls, "When I won the Oscar, I mentioned Kansas City in my speech because it's where he was watching. If everything would have turned out the way it did but with Ellroy hating it, I would have been devastated.

"When he had read the script and wanted to have dinner with us, I said to Curtis (Hanson, the co-screenwriter and director) he really must have liked it. Curtis was more nervous about it. He said we couldn't assume anything because (Ellroy's) the kind of guy who would take us out to dinner ... look us in the eye and tell us we'd ruined it."