The penultimate lecture of the 2012 series was recorded on Friday 26 October. Brian Helgeland is one of Hollywood's master screenwriters of intelligent crime film, and has won an Oscar for LA Confidential and a BAFTA nomination for Mystic River. He has also collaborated with Tony Scott (Taking of Pelham 123, Man On Fire) and Paul Greengrass.

In this lecture, Helgeland urged screenwriters to 'fight' to assert themselves in front of commissioners and executives, argued that films should be 'commercial' (that is, profitable on some level) and paid tribute to Cool Hand Luke screenwriter Frank Pierson.

Sponsored by The JJ Charitable Trust.

Watch this session on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAQNu5Sy0qU

Read the transcript on our website: https://guru.bafta.org/brian-helgeland-screenwriters-lecture

The Screenwriters' Lectures are presented as originally recorded. Some of the lectures may contain outdated comments or views which some listeners may find insensitive or offensive.

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