I think Cool Hand Luke was probably the first movie in which I was aware of the writing as its own separate thing. It was that speech when the guy reads Paul Newman the riot act. The speech about going in the box.
Brian HelgelandIn my own experience, the scripts that I wrote, if they didn't go within two years and become a film, they never went and no one ever came looking for them.
Brian HelgelandFor me in a film, almost every scene you end up cutting a bit of the start of it out, and some of the end of it out because there's always...once you've rehearsed it and shot it, it feels like a couple of times and you can always get out sooner.
Brian HelgelandI think test screenings with an audience are useful because they have no dog in the fight, they just say how they feel.
Brian Helgeland