Helgeland Gets Robinson Bio

Writer-director Brian Helgeland looks like he has a green light (and a budget) to make a Jackie Robinson biopic, in cooperation with Robinson's widow.

Helgeland had been working on a movie about the relationship between Dodgers owner Branch Rickey and Robinson, but that project has apparently been scrapped, and Helgeland is moving ahead with a movie focused on Robinson.

Spike Lee had shopped a version around Hollywood for years, but couldn't make it happen, not even with Denzel Washington attached. Washington is probably too old to play the younger Robinson (though he was fairly buff in "Book of Eli"), and there's no word on whom Helgeland might cast.

Helgeland is probably best known for his "L.A. Confidential" script. He also wrote Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood," and wrote and directed "A Knight's Tale."