Untitled Cop Movie

Screenwriter Brian Helgeland talks THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123, ROBIN HOOD, and UNTITLED COP MOVIE

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: June 10th, 2009 at 12:48 pm

I could have talked with screenwriter Brian Helgeland for an hour. That’s because he’s written some great scripts and worked for some amazing directors. Here are some of the films he’s written:

• L.A. Confidential
• Payback
• Mystic River
• Man on Fire
• Conspiracy Theory
• A Knight’s Tale

And that’s just part of his resume, as his new movie “The Taking of Pelham 123″ arrives in theaters this weekend and he has four other films in production or post-production. Perhaps you’ve already heard of “Green Zone”, “Cirque du Freak”, “Robin Hood” and “Salt”. If you haven’t, they’re directed by Paul Greengrass, Paul Weitz, Ridley Scott, and Phillip Noyce. Not a bad list of directors.

Anyway, I got to speak with him for “The Taking of Pelham 123″ and the film stars Denzel Washington and John Travolta and it’s a remake of the 1974 film that starred Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. Here’s a link to the synopsis and six clips from the film.

During our interview we talked about why he wanted to write the remake, did he know Denzel would be in it, what’s it like to work for Tony Scott, does he still get studio notes and what does he do with them, what kind of research does he do, and we talked about his other projects like “Robin Hood” and how he’s going to direct a film later this year that’s currently called “Untitled Cop Movie”.

If you’re a fan of Brian’s writing or just want to hear about how he works, it’s a great interview. Take a look after the jump.

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