‘Based On a True Story’: 4 Narratively Pieces That Were Born to Star In Hollywood
3,000 stories since our inception, our founder has learned a thing or 20 about what makes a true tale irresistible to the Hollywood gods. Here are a few he plans to bring to a screen near you.
There’s something about seeing the words “Based on a True Story” flash across your screen that makes you inch forward in your seat. Suddenly, that movie or TV series is imbued with weight and consequence that just isn’t there in a work of pure fiction.
Ask my wife and she’ll tell you it doesn’t take an emotional masterpiece to get my tears flowing. (Procter & Gamble’s “Thank You, Mom” Olympics campaign, anyone?) But I cry extra hard at the concluding tackle scene in Rudy, inspired by the true story of underdog Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger’s role as a defensive end at Notre Dame. I’m in complete awe of the sheer genius and utter atomic destruction portrayed in Oppenheimer. I cringe, a lot, at the repulsive sexism and shocking biomedical deception in The Dropout, about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, and I’m equally horrified and inspired by the excruciating journey of the Exonerated Five in When They See Us.
As a reader, writer and editor, I find …
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