Whatever genre or time period you’re writing – and whichever techniques you’re using – there are great scripts out there to inspire and guide you.
In no particular order, here are 100 fact-based screenplays which have something to teach us about adapting real life. This is the complete reference version of the list featured on Substack.
1. The Social Network (2010)
📖 Based on: The 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich about the founding of Facebook.
✒️ Written by: Aaron Sorkin
✅ Good for: Unsympathetic protagonist; unconventional structure; corporate/tech stories; unreliable narrator; conflicting accounts
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
2. Lincoln (2012)
📖 Based on: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin – the film focuses on the final months of Lincoln’s life and his efforts to abolish slavery to end the Civil War.
✒️ Written by: Tony Kushner
✅ Good for: Politics; biopic; historical drama; 19th century; US Civil War; leadership; historical figures
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb)
3. Serpico (1973)
📖 Based on: Serpico: The Cop Who Defied the System by Peter Maas about police officer Frank Serpico who uncovered corruption in the NYPD.
✒️ Written by: Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler
✅ Good for: Crime drama; whistleblowers; law enforcement; 1960s & 1970s New York; going up against the system; corruption; hierarchy
➡️ Script source: Cinephilia & Beyond
4. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
📖 Based on: ‘The Boys in the Bank‘ by P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore, published in Life magazine, about an attempted bank heist.
✒️ Written by: Frank Pierson
✅ Good for: Crime drama; real-time action; criminal point-of-view; 1970s New York; bank heist; tight pacing
➡️ Script source: Daily Script
5. All the President’s Men (1976)
📖 Based on: All the President’s Men by Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, which recounts their efforts to uncover the truth about the Watergate scandal.
✒️ Written by: William Goldman
✅ Good for: Journalists; politics; government; investigations; two-handers; cover-ups; 1970s US
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
6. Moneyball (2011)
📖 Based on: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis about the Oakland As baseball team.
✒️ Written by: Aaron Sorkin
✅ Good for: Sports drama; baseball; dramatizing ‘dry’ subjects; dialogue; use of flashback; use of real footage; rising action; narrative structure; going up against the establishment; winning & losing
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
7. Goodfellas (1990)
📖 Based on: Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi.
✒️ Written by: Nicholas Pileggi & Martin Scorsese
✅ Good for: Crime drama, Mob stories; use of voiceover; elongated timelines; unsympathetic characters; world-building; strong opening; writing violence
➡️ Script source: Daily Script
8. Nomadland (2020)
📖 Based on: Nomadland by Jessica Bruder (and her reporting published in Harper’s Magazine) about the world of modern-day nomads.
✒️ Written by: Chloé Zhao
✅ Good for: Low-key drama; fictional characters in an authentic setting; stories set on the road; subtlety in storytelling
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
9. The King’s Speech (2010)
📖 Based on: King George VI’s personal struggle to control his stuttering with the help of speech therapist Lionel Logue.
✒️ Written by: David Seidler
✅ Good for: Historical drama; royalty; war & politics; 1930s Britain; institutions & hierarchy; use of midpoint; strong central relationship
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / IMSDb
10. Elvis (2022)
📖 Based on: The life of the ‘king of rock ‘n roll’, Elvis Presley.
✒️ Written by: Baz Luhrmann, Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce & Jeremy Doner
✅ Good for: Music biopic; strong visual impact; dramatizing well-known figures & events; elongated storyline; use of voiceover; unreliable narrator
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Deadline (Read The Screenplay Series)
11. Erin Brockovich (2000)
📖 Based on: The experiences of Erin Brockovich, a legal assistant who investigated a large utility company over claims it polluted a small Californian town.
✒️ Written by: Susannah Grant
✅ Good for: Environmental drama; investigations; female protagonist; going up against corporations; legal drama; pollution; balancing personal & professional story elements
➡️ Script source: Daily Script / Script Slug
12. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
📖 Based on: Born on the Fourth of July by Ron Kovic, a Vietnam war vet turned anti-war activist.
✒️ Written by: Ron Kovic & Oliver Stone
✅ Good for: War films; anti-war activism; Vietnam War; disability; biopic; drug addiction; depression; 1960s/70s America
➡️ Script source: Daily Script
13. Maria (2024)
📖 Based on: The life of opera singer Maria Callas.
✒️ Written by: Steven Knight
✅ Good for: Music biopic; opera; female protagonist; end of life stories; Paris; dramatizing iconic figures; memory & recollection; use of flashback; drug-induced states
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
14. Spotlight (2015)
📖 Based on: Reporting by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team into child abuse in the Catholic Church.
✒️ Written by: Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy
✅ Good for: Journalism; investigations; ensemble drama; social issues films; institutions & hierarchy
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
15. Raging Bull (1980)
📖 Based on: Raging Bull: My Story by Jake LaMotta, Joseph Carter and Peter Savage
✒️ Written by: Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin
✅ Good for: Sports biopics; boxing; unsympathetic protagonist; self-destruction; violence; rage; masculinity
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
16. Argo (2012)
📖 Based on: The Wired magazine article ‘How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans From Tehran’ by Joshuah Bearman and The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA by Antonio Mendez.
✒️ Written by: Chris Terrio
✅ Good for: Thriller; politics; hostages; escape; CIA; covert operations; Hollywood
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
17. Frost/Nixon (2008)
📖 Based on: The 2006 play Frost/Nixon by Peter Morgan about a series of interviews between British broadcaster David Frost and former US president Richard Nixon.
✒️ Written by: Peter Morgan
✅ Good for: Adapting fact-based plays; politics; media; dialogue-driven stories; 1970s America; dramatizing presidents
➡️ Script source: Daily Script / Script Slug
18. The Big Short (2015)
📖 Based on: The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis about the origins of the 2007/8 financial crisis.
✒️ Written by: Adam McKay and Charles Randolph
✅ Good for: Business & finance; irreverent tone; jargon-heavy stories; humanizing dry topics; breaking the fourth wall; ensemble drama; Wall Street
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
19. 12 Years a Slave (2013)
📖 Based on: Solomon Northup’s 1853 memoir, 12 Years a Slave, about his experiences as a free Black man abducted into slavery.
✒️ Written by: John Ridley and Steve McQueen
✅ Good for: Adapting memoir; historical drama; US Civil War era; Deep South; slavery; racism; brutality; human spirit
➡️ Script source: Daily Script / Script Slug
20. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
📖 Based on: The trial of seven defendants charged with offences stemming from protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
✒️ Written by: Aaron Sorkin
✅ Good for: Trial transcripts as source material; historical exposition; ensemble dramas; structuring complex stories; flashback; courtroom dramas; 1960s US
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Deadline
21. Casino (1995)
📖 Based on: Casino: Love and Honour in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi about a Chicago mobster sent to Las Vegas to run a casino.
✒️ Written by: Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese
✅ Good for: Crime drama; Mob drama; Las Vegas; gambling; casinos; violence; sprawling narrative
➡️ Script source: Daily Script
22. A Complete Unknown (2024)
📖 Based on: Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties by Elijah Wald.
✒️ Written by: James Mangold and Jay Cocks
✅ Good for: Music biopics; folk music; artists; icons; 1960s US; central story thread
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
23. Saving Mr Banks (2013)
📖 Based on: British author P.L. Travers’ experiences in Hollywood when negotiating with Walt Disney over the rights to adapt her novel, Mary Poppins.
✒️ Written by: Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith
✅ Good for: B-story flashback; fictionalizing authors; Hollywood; musicals; father-daughter stories; coping with loss
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
24. The Insider (1999)
📖 Based on: The Vanity Fair article ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ by Marie Brenner about a whistleblower in the tobacco industry.
✒️ Written by: Eric Roth and Michael Mann
✅ Good for: Dual-protagonist narratives; journalism; corporate accountability; whistleblowers; media ethics; tobacco industry
➡️ Script source: Daily Script
25. Hidden Figures (2016)
📖 Based on: Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly.
✒️ Written by: Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi
✅ Good for: Multi-protagonist narratives; discrimination; Civil Rights; 1960s US; science & space stories; NASA; friendship; female protagonist stories
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
26. Dunkirk (2017)
📖 Based on: The evacuation of trapped Allied soldiers from Dunkirk in 1940.
✒️ Written by: Christopher Nolan
✅ Good for: WWII; war & action films; soldiers; warfare
➡️ Script source: Daily Script / Script Slug
27. American Splendor (2003)
📖 Based on: The life of Harvey Pekar, his comic books, and the graphic novel Our Cancer Year by Pekar & Joyce Brabner.
✒️ Written by: Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman
✅ Good for: Unconventional biopic; blending fiction and reality; comedy-drama; acerbic protagonist; fact-based stories based comic books & graphic novels
➡️ Script source: Daily Script / IMSDb
28. Catch Me if You Can (2002)
📖 Based on: Catch Me If You Can by one-time con artist Frank Abagnale Jr.
✒️ Written by: Jeff Nathanson
✅ Good for: Cat & mouse stories; conmen; FBI & law enforcement; crime drama; biopic; suspense
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / IMSDb
29. Into the Wild (2007)
📖 Based on: Into the Wild byJon Krakauer about Christopher McCandless, who walked away from his life to venture into the Alaskan wilderness.
✒️ Written by: Sean Penn
✅ Good for: ‘Mother Nature as antagonist’ stories; psychological drama; wilderness; Alaska; biopics; adventure
➡️ Script source: IMSDb
30. The Report (2019)
📖 Based on: The US Senate Intelligence Committee study of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program and the Vanity Fair article ‘Rorschach and Awe’ by Katherine Eban.
✒️ Written by: Scott Z. Burns
✅ Good for: Procedural stories; US government; War on Terror; 9-11; interrogation & torture; fact-based stories based on reports & official documents
➡️ Script source: Deadline
31. Nuremberg (2025)
📖 Based on: The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai about the psychiatrist sent to evaluate Nazis awaiting trial at Nuremberg at the end of WWII.
✒️ Written by: James Vanderbilt
✅ Good for: Explorations of evil; psychological dramas & thrillers; historical dramas; war crimes; WWII
➡️ Script source: Deadline
32. Stan & Ollie (2018)
📖 Based on: Laurel & Hardy – The British Tours by A.J. Marriot.
✒️ Written by: Jeff Pope
✅ Good for: Comedian biopics; Hollywood; filmmaking; theatre; male friendship; 1950s Britain; two-handers; comedy-dramas
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
33. JFK (1991)
📖 Based on: On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison and Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs.
✒️ Written by: Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar
✅ Good for: Conspiracy theories; FBI & law enforcement; JFK assassination; 1960s America; historical dramas; politics; research; rewriting history
➡️ Script source: IMSDb
34. The Elephant Man (1980)
📖 Based on: The Elephant Man, A Study in Human Dignity by Ashley Montagu.
✒️ Written by: Christopher De Vore, Eric Bergren and David Lynch
✅ Good for: Biopic; 19th century London; atmospheric drama; social issues; doctors & medicine; cruelty; deformity; intellectual stories
➡️ Script source: IMSDb
35. Ford v Ferrari (aka Le Mans ‘66) (2019)
📖 Based on: Efforts by designer Carroll Shelby and driver Ken Miles to develop a revolutionary racing car for Ford to defeat Ferrari at Le Mans.
✒️ Written by: Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth and Jason Keller
✅ Good for: Racing stories; action; visual storytelling; sports; two-handers; drama
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Deadline
36. Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)
📖 Based on: Newsman Edward R. Murrow’s attempts to challenge the 1950s Communist witch-hunts spearheaded by Senator Joseph McCarthy.
✒️ Written by: George Clooney and Grant Heslov
✅ Good for: TV news media; journalism; Communism; public figures; 1950s America
➡️ Script source: Daily Script
37. Milk (2008)
📖 Based on: The life of gay activist and politician Harvey Milk
✒️ Written by: Dustin Lance Black
✅ Good for: Biopic; gay rights; activism; politics; assassination; 1970s San Francisco; discrimination; use of voiceover
➡️ Script source: IMSDb
38. The Fighter (2010)
📖 Based on: Inspired by the 1995 documentary High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell about a family struggling with drug addiction with ties to professional boxing.
✒️ Written by: Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson
✅ Good for: Sports biopics; boxing films; drug addiction; stories about brothers; documentary as a source material
➡️ Script source: IMSDb
39. Zodiac (2007)
📖 Based on: Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked by Robert Graysmith about the search for an unidentified serial killer.
✒️ Written by: James Vanderbilt
✅ Good for: True crime; law enforcement; procedure & investigation; serial killers; 1960s/70s America; unsolved crimes; amateur detectives; elongated timelines
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
40. Bridge of Spies (2015)
📖 Based on: Lawyer James B. Donovan’s attempts to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court and to help secure the release of a captured US pilot.
✒️ Written by: Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
✅ Good for: Thriller; Cold War era; historical drama; political drama; spies; legal drama
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
41. Quiz Show (1994)
📖 Based on: Remembering America: A Voice from the Sixties by Richard N. Goodwin about a TV quiz show scandal.
✒️ Written by: Paul Attanasio
✅ Good for: Drama; Stories set behind the scenes in TV; 1960s America; scandals; morality tales
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
42. Amadeus (1984)
📖 Based on: Peter Shaffer’s stage play of the same name fictionalizing the relationship between composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri.
✒️ Written by: Peter Shaffer
✅ Good for: Period drama; classical music; 18th century; depicting genius; stage plays as source material; jealousy & envy; obsession
➡️ Script source: Daily Script / Script Slug
43. BlackBerry (2023)
📖 Based on: Losing the Signal by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff about the rise and fall of the BlackBerry communication device.
✒️ Written by: Matt Johnson and Matthew Miller
✅ Good for: Business & tech; comedy-drama; irreverent tone; 1990s & 2000s Canada & America; underdog stories
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Deadline
44. The Zone of Interest (2023)
📖 Based on: Martin Amis’ novel of the same name which fictionalizes the experiences of real-life Nazi officer Rudolf Höss, whose family lived next to Auschwitz.
✒️ Written by: Jonathan Glazer
✅ Good for: Psychological drama; stories dealing with Nazis & concentration camps; explorations of evil; novels as source material for fact-based drama
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Deadline
45. Miles Ahead (2015)
📖 Based on: The life of music icon Miles Davis.
✒️ Written by: Steven Baigelman and Don Cheadle
✅ Good for: Music biopics; jazz; performance; unconventional structure; dramatizing creativity; placing a real-life protagonist in a fictional narrative
➡️ Script source: Daily Script / Script Slug
46. The Damned United (2009)
📖 Based on: David Peace’s novel The Damned Utd about Brian Clough’s brief but tumultuous time in charge of Leeds United soccer team.
✒️ Written by: Peter Morgan
✅ Good for: Sports films; soccer; unsympathetic protagonist; male friendship; dual timelines; use of flashback; 1970s Britain; novels as source material for fact-based drama
➡️ Script source: IMSDb
47. Nixon (1995)
📖 Based on: The life of former US president Richard Nixon.
✒️ Written by: Stephen J. Rivele, Christopher Wilkinson and Oliver Stone
✅ Good for: Politics; full-life biopics; controversial figures; challenging protagonists; Watergate; 1970s America
➡️ Script source: Daily Script
48. Wild (2014)
📖 Based on: Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail.
✒️ Written by: Nick Hornby
✅ Good for: Adventure; drama; female-led stories; road trip; wilderness & nature; troubled past; memoir as source material
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
49. Peter Hujar’s Day (2025)
📖 Based on: The transcript of an interview between Linda Rosenkrantz and photographer Peter Hujar.
✒️ Written by: Ira Sachs
✅ Good for: Dialogue-heavy stories; unconventional biopics; introspection; 1970s America; dramatizing creativity; art world; New York’s cultural history; interviews as source material; word-for-word adaptations; real-time narratives
➡️ Script source: Deadline
50. Oppenheimer (2023)
📖 Based on: American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin about the ‘father of the atomic bomb’.
✒️ Written by: Christopher Nolan
✅ Good for: Biopic; science; morality & ethics; WWII; nuclear war; academia; sprawling narrative; 1940s America
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
51. Capote (2005)
📖 Based on: Capote by Gerald Clarke about writer Truman Capote – the film focuses on the writing of In Cold Blood about the 1959 Clutter family murders.
✒️ Written by: Dan Futterman
✅ Good for: Biopic; literary figures; true crime; drama; death row
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Daily Script
52. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
📖 Based on: The battle of Iwo Jima between the US and Japan during WWII – as told from the Japanese perspective (see the companion piece Flags of Our Fathers (2006), which tells the story from the American POV, including the iconic flag raising).
✒️ Written by: Iris Yamashita
✅ Good for: War films; WWII; action; battles; soldiers
➡️ Script source: Daily Script
53. Ed Wood (1994)
📖 Based on: Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood Jr. by Rudolph Grey about the cult film director.
✒️ Written by: Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
✅ Good for: Biopics; Hollywood & filmmaking; 1950s America; dark comedy; cult films
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Daily Script
54. Foxcatcher (2014)
📖 Based on: Foxcatcher: The True Story of My Brother’s Murder, John Du Pont’s Madness, and the Quest For Olympic Gold by Mark Schultz.
✒️ Written by: E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman
✅ Good for: Sports films; wrestling; biography; Olympics; true crime; eccentricity; self-destructive characters
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / IMSDb
55. The Imitation Game (2014)
📖 Based on: Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges about the British mathematician and father of theoretical computer science who led the team which broke the German Enigma code machine during WWII.
✒️ Written by: Graham Moore
✅ Good for: Biopic; period drama; maths & computing; WWII; wartime Britain; academia; hidden sexuality; complex protagonists
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
56. The Two Popes (2019)
📖 Based on: Anthony McCarten’s stage play The Pope about meetings between Pope Benedict and the future Pope Francis.
✒️ Written by: Anthony McCarten
✅ Good for: Drama; religion & religious traditions; notable figures; dialogue-heavy stories; fact-based stories based on stage plays
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Deadline
57. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
📖 Based on: Billboards put up by James Fulton protesting the unsolved murder of his daughter.
✒️ Written by: Martin McDonagh
✅ Good for: Crime; law enforcement; grief; justice; small-town America; stories ‘inspired by’ real events
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
58. Thirteen Days (2000)
📖 Based on: The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis by Ernest R. May and Philip D. Zelikow
✒️ Written by: David Self
✅ Good for: Political drama; Cold War era; nuclear threats; JFK; tension; ‘inner sanctum’ stories; White House
➡️ Script source: Daily Script
59. The End of the Tour (2015)
📖 Based on: David Lipsky’s memoir Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself about the journalist’s road trip with author David Foster Wallace.
✒️ Written by: Donald Margulies
✅ Good for: Biopic; journalists & authors; comedy-drama; road trip; intellectual drama; 1990s America; fact-based films based on memoir & interviews
➡️ Script source: Daily Script
60. Donnie Brasco (1997)
📖 Based on: Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia by Joseph D. Pistone.
✒️ Written by: Paul Attanasio
✅ Good for: True crime; violence; mafia stories; FBI & law enforcement; undercover work
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / IMSDb
61. 127 Hours (2010)
📖 Based on: Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston, who got trapped in a canyon alone.
✒️ Written by: Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy
✅ Good for: Survival stories; adventure; nature & wilderness; psychological drama
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / IMSDb
62. First Man (2018)
📖 Based on: First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen
✒️ Written by: Josh Singer
✅ Good for: Biopic; historic drama; space & space flight; NASA; character-driven stories
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Daily Script
63. Air (2023)
📖 Based on: Nike’s landmark ‘Air Jordan’ sneaker deal with then-up-and-coming NBA star Michael Jordan.
✒️ Written by: Alex Convery
✅ Good for: Business & dealmaking; sports; basketball & NBA; dramatizing sporting icons; witty tone; 1980s America
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Deadline
64. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
📖 Based on: Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger by Lee Israel.
✒️ Written by: Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty
✅ Good for: Drama; acerbic wit; literature & authors; forgery; New York; gay characters & friendships; memoir as source material; female protagonist; depicting middle-age; self-destructive characters
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
65. The Post (2017)
📖 Based on: The Washington Post’s decision to publish the classified Pentagon Papers, which contained damming analysis of the Vietnam War.
✒️ Written by: Liz Hannah and Josh Singer
✅ Good for: Newspapers & journalists; freedom of the press; Nixon-era America; Vietnam War; trailblazing women; period detail
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Daily Script
66. Saturday Night (2024)
📖 Based on: The first broadcast of NBC’s anarchic, long-running comedy show Saturday Night Live in October 1975.
✒️ Written by: Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman
✅ Good for: Behind-the-scenes stories; TV & live entertainment; comedy; frenetic pacing; real-time drama
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Deadline
67. Jackie (2016)
📖 Based on: First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ experiences in the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
✒️ Written by: Noah Oppenheim
✅ Good for: Biopic; historical drama; female protagonist; portraying grief; JFK assassination; 1960s America; grief; intimate stories
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
68. Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
📖 Based on: The experiences of Ron Woodroof, who started supplying in-need patients with life-saving HIV medication after his own diagnosis.
✒️ Written by: Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack
✅ Good for: Biopics; medical drama; portraying HIV & AIDS; discrimination; 1980s America; interviews & first-hand accounts as source material; composite characters
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / IMSDb
69. 42 (2013)
📖 Based on: The life of Jackie Robinson – the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball.
✒️ Written by: Brian Helgeland
✅ Good for: Sports biopics; baseball & MLB; 1940s America; discrimination & racism; beating the odds; inspirational stories; fictionalising iconic figures
➡️ Script source: IMSDb
70. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
📖 Based on: Semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford about his time serving in the US Marines during the Vietnam War.
✒️ Written by: Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr & Gustav Hasford
✅ Good for: War drama; horrors of war; US Marines; bootcamp & training; Vietnam War; psychological drama; semi-autobiographical fiction as source material
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
71. Vice (2018)
📖 Based on: The life and career of the late Dick Cheney – George W. Bush’s vice president.
✒️ Written by: Adam McKay
✅ Good for: Political biopics; dark comedy; US government; power & influence; 9/11 & War on Terror; irreverent tone; unsympathetic protagonist; voice-over narration
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
72. The Irishman (2019)
📖 Based on: I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, recounting his interviews with career criminal Frank Sheeran.
✒️ Written by: Steven Zaillian
✅ Good for: Crime drama; true crime; mobsters; violence & murder; multi-decade stories
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Deadline
73. The Perfect Storm (2000)
📖 Based on: The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger about a commercial fishing vessel lost at sea after a storm.
✒️ Written by: William D. Wittliff
✅ Good for: Survival & adventure; action; nature as antagonist; extreme weather; stories set at sea; peril; disaster films
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
74. She Said (2022)
📖 Based on: She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey detailing their New York Times investigation into sex abuse and misconduct by Harvey Weinstein.
✒️ Written by: Rebecca Lenkiewicz
✅ Good for: Newspapers; reporters; investigations; #MeToo; sex-related crimes; high-profile stories; female protagonists; two-handed narratives
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Universal Pictures
75. The Exorcist (1973)
📖 Based on: William Peter Blatty’s novel of the same name which was inspired by a 1949 case of supposed demonic possession and exorcism.
✒️ Written by: William Peter Blatty
✅ Good for: Supernatural horror; possession & exorcism; priests; eerie & atmospheric tone; depicting children; narratives loosely inspired by real-life events; fiction as source material
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
76. September 5 (2024)
📖 Based on: The ABC Sports broadcasting team which covered a hostage situation that unfolded at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.
✒️ Written by: Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum and Alex David
✅ Good for: News; live TV; contained thriller; sports & Olympics; 1970s; suspense; use of real footage
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Deadline
77. Man on the Moon (1999)
📖 Based on: The life of offbeat US comedian Andy Kaufman.
✒️ Written by: Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
✅ Good for: Biopic; comedians & showbusiness; difficult protagonists
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / IMSDb
78. BlacKkKlansman (2018)
📖 Based on: Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth about his experiences as a Black police detective who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan.
✒️ Written by: Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Spike Lee
✅ Good for: Crime drama; comedy-drama; law enforcement; discrimination & racism; controversial subject matter; social issues
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / IMSDb
79. Darkest Hour (2017)
📖 Based on: Incoming British prime minister Winston Churchill’s dilemma over whether to enter peace negotiations with Adolf Hitler or to fight the Nazi regime.
✒️ Written by: Anthony McCarten
✅ Good for: Wartime drama; political biopic; British government; WWII
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
80. Captain Phillips (2013)
📖 Based on: A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea by Richard Phillips and Stephan Talty
✒️ Written by: Billy Ray
✅ Good for: Action; thriller; seafaring stories; hijacking & pirates
➡️ Script source: Daily Script
81. American Sniper (2014)
📖 Based on: American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History by Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice.
✒️ Written by: Jason Hall
✅ Good for: War films; action; psychological drama; soldiers; 9/11; Iraq War; effects of war on military personnel; PTSD
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / IMSDb
82. Priscilla (2023)
📖 Based on: Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley and Sandra Harmon.
✒️ Written by: Sofia Coppola
✅ Good for: Biopic; drama; romance & marriage; female protagonist; dramatizing icons; separation & divorce; drug abuse
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Deadline
83. Gods and Monsters (2008)
📖 Based on: Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram about the life of director James Whale.
✒️ Written by: Bill Condon
✅ Good for: Biopics; Hollywood & filmmaking; 1930s America; gay characters
➡️ Script source: Daily Script
84. Freud’s Last Session (2023)
📖 Based on: Mark St. Germain’s stage play of the same name about a meeting between author C. S. Lewis and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.
✒️ Written by: Mark St. Germain and Matthew Brown
✅ Good for: Drama; two-handers; literature & philosophy; wartime Britain; intellectuals & academics; dramatizing cultural figures; two-handers; dialogue-driven stories; stage plays as source material
➡️ Script source: Deadline / Sony Classics
85. Rustin (2023)
📖 Based on: The life of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin
✒️ Written by: Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black
✅ Good for: Biopic; political drama; depicting racism & homophobia; US Civil Rights movement; 1960s America
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Deadline
86. The Pianist (2002)
📖 Based on: Memoir The Pianist by Polish-Jewish pianist and Holocaust survivor Władysław Szpilman.
✒️ Written by: Ronald Harwood
✅ Good for: Historical drama; classical music & composers; depicting Nazis & concentration camps; Poland during WWII; memoir as source material
➡️ Script source: Daily Script
87. The Good Nurse (2022)
📖 Based on: True crime book The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber about serial killer Charles Cullen.
✒️ Written by: Krysty Wilson-Cairns
✅ Good for: True crime; murder; serial killers; medical profession; nurses & hospitals; psychological thriller; real-life horror
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
88. Sing Sing (2023)
📖 Based on: The Rehabilitation Through the Arts programme at Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison.
✒️ Written by: Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar
✅ Good for: Prison drama; theatre & performing arts; prisoners & rehabilitation
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
89. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
📖 Based on: Game show host Chuck Barris’ outlandish memoir, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
✒️ Written by: Charlie Kaufman
✅ Good for: True crime; TV & entertainment; assassins; CIA; disputed facts; stranger than fiction tales
➡️ Script source: IMSDb
90. Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)
📖 Based on: The life of Fred Hampton, who ran the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s.
✒️ Written by: Will Berson and Shaka King
✅ Good for: Biopic; political drama; crime; FBI & informants; 1960s Chicago; US Civil Rights movement
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Deadline
91. I, Tonya (2017)
📖 Based on: The life and career of American figure skater Tonya Harding and the well-publicised assault on her rival Nancy Kerrigan at the 1994 Winter Olympics.
✒️ Written by: Steven Rogers
✅ Good for: Comedy-drama; sports; figure skating; irreverent tone; marital & parental abuse; mock interviews; unreliable narrator
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
92. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
📖 Based on: Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoir, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, about his experiences living with locked-in syndrome.
✒️ Written by: Ronald Harwood
✅ Good for: Biopic; intimate drama; living with medical conditions & disabilities
➡️ Script source: Daily Script
93. American Gangster (2007)
📖 Based on: The New York magazine article ‘The Return of Superfly’ by Mark Jacobson about Harlem drug smuggler Frank Lucas.
✒️ Written by: Steven Zaillian
✅ Good for: Crime drama; gangsters; law enforcement; true crime; drugs; 1960s/70s New York; two-handers
➡️ Script source: IMSDb
94. Munich (2005)
📖 Based on: Vengeance by George Jonas about the assassinations of the Mossad operatives responsible for the kidnap and killing of five Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics.
✒️ Written by: Eric Roth and Tony Kushner
✅ Good for: Political drama; thriller; assassinations; use of real footage
➡️ Script source: Daily Script
95. Till (2022)
📖 Based on: Mamie Till’s pursuit of justice after the racist 1955 murder of her 14-year-old son Emmett in Mississippi.
✒️ Written by: Michael Reilly, Keith Beauchamp and Chinonye Chukwu
✅ Good for: Biopic; historical drama; Deep South; depictions of racism; search for justice; murder
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Deadline
96. Monster (2003)
📖 Based on: The life of serial killer Aileen Wuornos.
✒️ Written by: Patty Jenkins
✅ Good for: Crime drama; biopic; true crime; female killers; abuse; murder; personal correspondence as source material
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
97. Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
📖 Based on: The decade-long search for Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 attacks.
✒️ Written by: Mark Boal
✅ Good for: Political drama; thriller; war; suspense; 9/11 & War on Terror; ethics of torture & enhanced interrogation; CIA; military
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
98. Reds (1981)
📖 Based on: Romantic Revolutionary: A Biography of John Reed by Robert A. Rosenstone and the work of journalist and writer John Reed, who chronicled the 1919 October Revolution in Russia.
✒️ Written by: Warren Beatty and Trevor Griffiths
✅ Good for: Biopic; political drama; historical epic; use of real-life figures; depictions of communism
➡️ Script source: Script Slug
99. Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
📖 Based on: Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann about a series of murders in Oklahoma’s Osage Nation land in the 1920s.
✒️ Written by: Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese
✅ Good for: Crime drama; historical epic; FBI & law enforcement; murder
➡️ Script source: Script Slug / Deadline
100. Lenny (1974)
📖 Based on: Julian Barry’s 1971 stage play Lenny about the life of controversial comedian Lenny Bruce.
✒️ Written by: Julian Barry
✅ Good for: Biopic; dark comedy; comedians & stand-up; 1960s America; drug abuse; sanitizing real-life subjects; stage plays as source material
➡️ Script source: Script Slug