A Knight's Tale, with Brian Helgeland

This week on On Story, a conversation with Brian Helgeland on his work writing and directing the 2001 medieval sports-comedy A Knight's Tale.   A Knight's Tale stars Heath Ledger as William Thatcher, an ambitious fourteenth-century squire who is determined to change his fate and escape his life of servitude. William's chance at glory arrives when his master is killed in a jousting tournament, and he decides to don his master's armor and compete in his place. With the help of his fellow squires, and the writer Geoffrey Chaucer (played by Paul Bettany), William adopts a fake identity as a nobleman and fights his way through the ranks of the jousting tournament, all while falling in love with a real noblewoman and concealing his true identity.    Writer-director Brian Helgeland decided to pursue filmmaking after encountering a book entitled "A Guide To Film School" while working on a fishing vessel. Helgeland broke into the industry by way of the horror genre, writing scripts for A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, and Tales From the Crypt. Helgeland won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work writing L.A. Confidential, a neo-noir crime thriller following three detectives trying to uncover a conspiracy within the corrupt LA police department. Helgeland made his directorial debut in 1999 with Payback, starring Mel Gibson. Helgeland has continued writing in the thriller and neo-noir genres throughout his career, including Mystic River, Man on Fire, Green Zone, Finestkind, and more. Helgeland also wrote and directed the sports drama 42, which follows the life of baseball player Jackie Robinson, the first black athlete to play in Major League Baseball, and stars Chadwick Boseman in his breakout role.    Barbara Morgan sat down with Brian Helgeland to talk about his experience writing A Knight's Tale as a spec script, directing Heath Ledger, and crafting the film's anachronistic stadium-rock score.