Brian Helgeland has a tale or two to tell about the creation and casting of his rip-roaring adventure story A Knight's Tale.
"I'd been toying with the idea of writing a film about jousting for years. It finally all came together for me when I read that only men of noble birth could compete in jousting tournaments. My film would be about a peasant who wants to be a knight," recalls Helgeland in a telephone interview from his offices in Los Angeles.
A Knight's Tale is the story of William Thatcher, a young squire who not only becomes a champion jouster, but gains the love of a woman of breeding.
The problem is, William has created a false titled persona for himself and it is just a matter of time before he will be unmasked.
It took Helgeland, who won an Oscar for his screenplay for L.A. Confidential, four months to write A Knight's Tale.
"I sold it to Columbia Pictures in November of 1999 and began scouting for locations (in Prague) the following January. They gave me a shooting date of May 2000."
Helgeland, who had directed Mel Gibson in Payback, heard about a young Australian actor named Heath Ledger, who had been cast as Gibson's son in The Patriot.
"I'd seen Heath in an Australian mini series called Roar. As cheap as that series was, he held it together with his earnest charm. That was a quality I wanted for William."
The problem was that Ledger was working on The Patriot and couldn't be excused for Helgeland's auditions. As fate would have it, filmmaker and star met in the Los Angeles airport.
"Heath was on his way to Australia and I was on my way to London. We sat down for a coffee. I noticed he was carrying a large leather sheath.
"It was a didgeridoo. He took it out and started playing it for me. It attracted quite a crowd. There we had this really contemporary guy playing a really ancient instrument. That was the exact anachronism I wanted for the movie. I wanted a jousting movie that had a rock soundtrack."
On the strength of their chance meeting, Helgeland cast Ledger. The casting of Shannyn Sossamon is Hollywood fantasy story.
"Shannyn is a complete unknown. This is her first acting experience. She was a dance party DJ who had been hired to spin records at Gwyneth Paltrow's birthday party. My casting agent was at the party and spotted her."
Helgeland sent her to Penny Allen, an acting coach in Los Angeles. "Penny assured us there Shannyn had real potential, so we screen tested her with Heath and we knew we found our actress."
What Helgeland knows for certain is working is his casting of Ledger.
"At the Los Angeles premiere this week, Heath was mobbed when he was leaving the theatre. Women of all ages wanted to catch a glimpse of him. They really were treating him like a rock star."
(More on: A Knight's Tale).
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