Brian Thomas Helgeland (born January 17, 1961) is an American screenwriter, film producer and director. He is most known for writing the screenplays for L.A. Confidential (for which he received an Academy Award), Mystic River, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. Helgeland was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of Norwegian-born parents Karin and Thomas. His surname is Norwegian, named after a landscape in Northern Norway. A graduate of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, he received his undergraduate degree at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. In 1998, Helgeland won both an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (for L.A. Confidential) and a Razzie (for The Postman) in the same year. Only one person had achieved the dubious feat before (Alan Menken in 1993), and only one other (Sandra Bullock in 2010) has achieved it since. He accepted the Razzie and became only the fourth person in its history to be personally presented with the statuette. Helgeland wrote and directed the films A Knight's Tale (2001) and The Order (2003).