LA Confidential screenwriter who launched Crowe's career
Curtis Hanson, the screenwriter and director, who has died aged 71, was a Hollywood also-ran – best known as the journeyman director-for-hire of hit thrillers such as The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992) and The River Wild (1994) – until he made LA Confidential (1997), a film noir thriller adapted from James Ellroy's labyrinthine novel set in the sun-drenched streets of 1950s Hollywood.