The Aussie screenwriter responsible for Pirates of the Caribbean and Collateral says he's been waiting since high school to make a film about the Australian experience in the Vietnam War.

Key points: Stuart Beattie wrote the screenplays for Pirates of the Caribbean, Collateral, Australia, and the newly-released Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan

Stuart Beattie wrote the screenplays for Pirates of the Caribbean, Collateral, Australia, and the newly-released Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan Beattie was knocked back by Disney for 10 years until they accepted his Pirates of the Caribbean script — Disney's third most lucrative venture

Beattie was knocked back by Disney for 10 years until they accepted his Pirates of the Caribbean script — Disney's third most lucrative venture His latest all-Australian film stars Vikings actor Travis Fimmel and chronicles Australia's deadly Vietnam War battle at Long Tan

Now 30 years on, Australia's most ambitious war film since Gallipoli, Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan, is about to hit our cinema screens.

With his megawatt smile and unfailing positivity Stuart Beattie always had a touch of that American optimism about him.

And he's nothing if not persistent.

For 10 years he knocked faithfully every year on the door of Walt Disney studios, cap and script in hand, and 10 times he was politely rejected.

Disney's third most lucrative venture

The script was for a pirate movie that Beattie first drafted while on exchange to Oregon State University in the United States in 1991.

He called it Quest for the Caribbean.

Then the chairman of Walt Disney Corporation wanted to turn three Disneyland attractions into films: the Haunted Mansion, Teddy Bears Picnic and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. ( Supplied )

"Everyone thought Haunted Mansion and the Teddy Bears Picnic were great ideas and that Pirates was the worst idea," Beattie said.

"So the executives went, 'God who are we going to get to write this?' and someone said, 'There's that crazy Australian guy who keeps sending us scripts, maybe we should hire him?'. So they called me," he said.

That was the start of the Pirates of the Caribbean, which first hit screens in 2003.

The six-film franchise netted $3.3 billion after production costs — Disney's third most lucrative venture behind Star Wars and the Marvel series.

"A lot of people thought it was going to be a big bomb but then it went the other way. People really embraced it and at that point it was validating, like, 'OK it was the right idea'," Beattie said.

"Because that's all you can ever do is write what you would want to see."

Jackman as Jack Sparrow?

Beattie envisaged the eponymous Captain Jack Sparrow would be played by a talented, then-little-known actor who had been a few years ahead of him at his Sydney boys school — Hugh Jackman.

He even partially named the character after him.

"I had seen him in all these musicals growing up, so I knew this guy was a phenomenal talent and so that's what I thought of, 'Jack. Yeah, Jack Sparrow!'," Beattie said.

Johnny Depp was cast but left studio executives aghast by his interpretation of the script.

"Everything Johnny said, everything he did, was all written — it was all scripted," Beattie said.

Actor Hugh Jackman on the set of Australia, released in 2008. ( Supplied )

"But I never imagined he would say it that way, or he would dress that way, or he would move that way.

"Initially the executives were horrified, they wanted to fire him, but it was too late.

"He ended up getting nominated for an Academy award for that role, which, y'know, big Hollywood blockbuster — that never happens."

The cab ride behind Collateral

After graduating from Charles Sturt University in Bathurst in 1993, Beattie took a leap of faith and moved to the US where he had a "ticking clock" on him over visa issues, until he was introduced to the love of his life, Kim.

Stuart Beattie wrote the screenplay for Collateral starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. ( Supplied: Dreamworks )

"We ran to Vegas in three months and got married and I'm still waiting on that fricking green card!" he said.

Beattie said the idea for the 2004 film Collateral, starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx, germinated shortly after high school when Beattie took a taxi ride home on his own and ended up chatting with the driver like they were "best mates".

"And I just had one of those weird, twisted thoughts like, 'Man I could be a homicidal maniac sitting back here and you'd have no idea — you've got your back to me.'

"I thought, 'Wow that's a really interesting setting for a drama'."

He originally called it Fiend, but again it didn't immediately grab the attention of producers.

HBO bought the pitch for it to air as a Friday night thriller, but then passed and put it on turnaround, meaning the writer could try to sell it elsewhere.

Beattie then took it to Dreamworks, the production company of his childhood hero Steven Spielberg.

"After the 4th or 5th time they cancelled on me I finally got in the door and pitched them the movie," Beattie said.

They read the script over the weekend and bought it on the Monday.

Working with Baz

The 2008 film Australia, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, was a collaboration between Beattie and celebrated cult filmmaker Baz Luhrmann — who has his own distinctive flair.

"The first thing I said to him, I was, 'Mate I don't I know how to do what you do. I think it's genius, but I don't know how to do it' and he's like, 'That's OK I wanna do what you do,' Beattie said.

Beattie was based in Baz Luhrmann's home while they co-wrote the script for Australia. ( Supplied: Stuart Beattie )

They talked about the big classical movies, Giant, Casablanca, and Out of Africa and came up with a concept for an epic, sweeping romance.

"We just hung out for two weeks and talked about who [we are], what we are, why we are, how we feel all about Australia, as Australians," he said.

"It really came out of this great organic place. This story that we created about this man, this woman and this young boy."

So after writing screenplays for so many hit movies, and with potentially another in the making, does Hollywood open its doors when Stuart Beattie comes knocking with a script these days?

"I wish!" he said.

"In Hollywood, you're only as good as your last film and even then, it doesn't matter what your list of credits is, it really doesn't, every job's just as difficult to get as the last one."

Honouring our Vietnam War veterans

Despite his Hollywood film success, it is Beattie's latest Australian cinematic achievement that has burned brightest and deepest — ever since he wrote a 50-page essay on the Vietnam War as a 16-year-old history student.

It's a big film, and an epic, real-life story, set on August 18, 1966, depicting Australia's most recognised battle during the Vietnam War: the Battle of Long Tan.

One hundred and eight Australian soldiers defended their position in a rubber plantation against more than 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers.

Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan was entirely filmed in Queensland with an entirely Queensland cast and crew.

The movie Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan was filmed on a timber plantation in Queensland's South Burnett region. ( Instagram: Kriv Stenders )

When the film's producers, Martin Walsh — who'd worked towards telling the Long Tan story for more than a decade — and brothers John and Michael Schwartz, asked Beattie to come on board to write the screenplay they didn't have to finish the sentence before he said yes.

The film's director, Kriv Stenders, said Beattie, who is also one of the film's producers, made the script into a "much leaner, meaner machine".

"When you employ someone like Stuart, you give in to his experience and his skill and his talent and know that he's going to bring something to the table," he said.

"It's very much about letting Stu weave his magic."

Producers John and Michael Schwartz signed up Beattie to write the screenplay and Kriv Stenders to direct. ( Supplied: Stuart Beattie )

After the story had been bubbling in Beattie's head for decades it took less than a month for him to deliver the screenplay.

"I was just overwhelmed. It just leapt off the page — that's the beauty of Stuart's writing," Stenders said.

"Stuart writes action the way a haiku works; you just need a few words to paint a very, very clear picture of what's happening on screen, so you don't get bogged down.

"It's like a score, like sheet music; the notes are there and all I have to do is play the notes right and not change it too much.

"It's a pleasure to work off a script like that because everything works because it's dramatically watertight."

'They fought like bloody gladiators'

The Australian Defence Force chipped in six armoured personnel carriers, two "Huey" helicopters and artillery.

Beattie and Stenders on the red carpet at the premiere of Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan. ( Supplied: Brendan Shoebridge )

They also provided 50 military liaison officers to assist with everything from the minute details of combat and communications, to liaising with the survivors of the battle and the families of those who lost their lives.

"There was a point where I could tell you the names of every single guy in Delta Company," Beattie said.

"I knew what platoon they were in, I knew what section they were in — because I had to know.

"I had to know where everyone was because we ended up having to put actors there. You need to know which actors are where and in which parts of the scenes."

At the film's premiere on the Gold Coast, the large cinema was full of survivors, stripes of coloured cotton and precious metal indicting military honours glinting on their chests, alongside the families of those who died.

Lieutenant Colonel Harry Smith, who led 6RAR D-Company, is played by Vikings star Travis Fimmel.

Lieutenant Colonel Smith was among the dignitaries who walked the red carpet.

Vietnam War veterans Harry Smith, Bob Grandin and Bob Buick at the Gold Coast premiere of the film. ( Instagram: Kriv Stenders )

"I gave it 8/10. It brought back sad times for me to see my soldiers shot, but they survived because of their courage and gallantry," he said.

"They fought like bloody gladiators and that's why I, and the others who survived, are still alive.

"This is wonderful for the public to see this movie. To see Long Tan encapsulated on film and shown around Australia, New Zealand and America, it will certainly help the ANZAC history."

Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan opens in cinemas on August 8.