Claim: There was a neo-noir crime film whose screenplay was by Brian Helgeland.

L.A. Confidential is a 1997 American neo-noir crime film directed , produced and co-written by Curtis Hanson . The screenplay by Hanson and Brian Helgeland is loosely based on James Ellroy 's 1990 novel of the same name , the third book in his L.A. Quartet series . Like the book , the film tells the story of a group of LAPD officers in 1953 , and the intersection of police corruption and Hollywood celebrity . The title refers to the 1950s scandal magazine Confidential , portrayed in the film as Hush-Hush .   At the time , Australian actor Guy Pearce and New Zealand actor Russell Crowe were relatively unknown in North America , and one of the film 's backers , Peter Dennett , was worried about the lack of established stars in the lead roles . However , he supported Hanson 's casting decisions and this gave the director the confidence to approach Kevin Spacey , Kim Basinger , and Danny DeVito .   The film grossed $ 126 million worldwide and was critically acclaimed , holding a 99 % rating at Rotten Tomatoes and an aggregated score of 90 out of 100 on Metacritic . It was nominated for nine Academy Awards , winning two : Basinger for Best Supporting Actress and Hanson and Helgeland for Best Adapted Screenplay ; it lost every other category to Titanic . In 2015 , the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry , finding it `` culturally , historically , or aesthetically significant '' .