Possibly the most common source for fact-based films, well-researched non-fiction books do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to creating a narrative and providing important background. Our series of guides to working with different source material moves on to look at the benefits and challenges of working with non-fiction books.
Non-fiction books: the basics
For the purposes of this series, we’ve covered biographies & autobiographies separately. The focus here is on non-fiction books which examine real life events more generally. Even when the book focuses on a specific point-of-view or person, the author often takes a wider approach to the story.
An example is the book named as the inspiration for the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown (2024). While the singer-songwriter is the main subject of the book, Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties, author Elijah Wald casts a wide net to cover all the relevant people, cultural movements, and developments which combine to place Dylan and his influence into that world. Read more in our analysis.
The challenges of working with non-fiction books
The in-depth and wide-ranging nature of non-fiction books is invaluable to writers but also present a challenge. It is the scriptwriter’s job to mine out a central story thread from these pages and transform the material into a compelling screen drama. In fact, of all the types of source material, this may be the most creatively demanding.
Adapting a non-fiction book is like adapting a novel, with multiple story strands, characters, and subplots which need to be distilled into the confines of a screenplay – often leading to criticisms of the produced film over the omissions and departures from the source.
In addition, non-fiction books contain a lot of research, with the footnotes, bibliography or sources section often containing dozens (even hundreds) of references. Again, while this is all useful and interesting, it can lead to information overload for a writer trying to develop a 120-page script.
Also, while the book might contain a lot of detail, writers and filmmakers often supplement this with additional sources, such as interviews with those involves to get a different perspective.
It’s also important to note the presence of bias. Just as we, as writers, have our decisions to make, so the author made theirs. Non-fiction books have an angle or viewpoint, which may not necessarily align with what you want to say in your script. We touch on this in our analysis of Quiz Show (1994), which is based on a non-fiction book written with clear bias towards one of the fictionalized characters.
Approaches to working with non-fiction books
There are a variety of ways in which writers can use non-fiction books, including:
Using a portion of the book: Based on the excellent Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin, the equally terrific Lincoln (2012) selects its focused storyline from a narrow portion of the nearly 1,000-page book.
Using the book as a jumping-off point: The script for the Cold War-era Bridge of Spies (2015) came from a footnote in a book, which led the writer to focus on James B. Donovan, who defended a man accused of being a spy.
Using the book as ‘inspiration’: The ‘inspired by’ label gives writers and filmmakers more leeway to depart from the real-life narrative to develop a stronger screen story, as was the case with A Complete Unknown.
Changing key details of the book: A good example here is Casino (1995), where elements of the non-fiction book Casino: Love and Honour in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi – including character names – were changed.
As background for a fictional story: Much of the detail and history in Gangs of New York (2002) were drawn from the 1927 non-fiction book Gangs of New York by Herbert Asbury but the actual narrative was fictionalized.
Of course, non-fiction books are also commonly used for research purposes, alongside a variety of other material, so the writer can develop the strongest screen story.
Legal rights
Unless it’s in the public domain, published books are copyrighted material. The rights usually belong to the publisher. However, there are grey areas.
As we mentioned above, authors of non-fiction books collate a lot of material for their work. This might include interviews they conduct, personal accounts, and secondary material they access (other books and websites, etc.).
The key is specificity. If the non-fiction book is your main source of research, your work will likely be derived (i.e. based on) that book (at least in part), in which case rights will likely need to be acquired.
As always, do your research into any rights issues and seek legal advice if necessary. If you get to the point where the industry becomes interested in your script, the question will likely arise as to the source of the story.
Fact-based films based on non-fiction books
We end with a small selection of films which name a non-fiction book as the primary source material (script sources where available):
- Killers of the Flower Moon (2023): Based on Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann. Script sources: Script Slug / Deadline
- First Man (2018): Based on First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen. Script source: Script Slug
- Hidden Figures (2016): Based on Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly. Script source: Script Slug
- The Big Short (2015): Based on The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis. Script source: Script Slug
- Black Mass (2015): Based on Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI, and a Devil’s Deal by Dick Lehr & Gerard O’Neill
- Black Hawk Down (2001): Based on Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden
- In Cold Blood (1967): Based on In Cold Blood by Truman Capote