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Writers can be some of the strangest people one can encounter in their lifetime, but it’s through their eyes and words that we’re transported from one universe to the next. While the classic literature taught in school might not be the most entertaining reads, the story behind some of history’s greatest writers can be fascinating. Whether it’s F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald roaming the streets of France with their old buddy Hemingway, or Truman Capote moving from small-town Alabama to New York City, some of the world’s biggest writers have become an endless source of fascination.
Update September 12, 2023: This article has been updated with even more great films based on real-life writers.
It’s this interest that’s created some of the finest works of literature and excellent movies. Many writers are known to thinly disguise the other creatives they've met throughout their lives in their work, creating semi-autobiographical novels based on real people and events. But in the movie world, biopics replicate the inner lives of these writers along with the exciting parts of their day-to-day routines, while other movies choose to dramatize what happened. These are the best movies about real-life writers.
16 Henry and June (1990)
Henry and June came out in 1990, years after its subjects had died. The movie takes inspiration from writer Anaïs Nin’s book Henry and June, which tracks the years during which she engaged in a relationship with fellow writer Henry Miller and his wife June. Nin helped accelerate the end of the Miller’s marriage but was a known companion for Henry Miller, leading to the publication of the Tropic of Cancer. The movie stars Maria de Medeiros as Nin, Uma Thurman as June, and Fred Ward as Henry.
15 Finding Neverland (2004)
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Johnny Depp brilliantly portrayed Scottish novelist and playwright J.M. Barrie in Finding Neverland, depicting his endearing and impactful relationship with widow Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet) and her four sons Peter, Jack, Michael, and George, all of whom would serve as inspiration for his iconic literary character Peter Pan and his subsequent stories surrounding the mischievous boy who never grows up. The bond Barrie shared with Davies and her children greatly influenced his legacy as a trailblazing novelist, though his beloved novel Peter Pan often overshadowed his other impressive creations and work.
14 Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994)
In the Roaring Twenties, while many writers flocked to Paris, others were paving their names on the streets of New York. Poet and satirist Dorothy Parker was one of them when she joined her writer's group, the Algonquin Round Table. Dorothy Parker had a bite and edge to her writing and was quite the character, and actress Jennifer Jason Leigh portrays her well. While Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle fall upon the tropes of an older character remembering their glory days, it manages to wrench despair and heartbreak into the midst of the storytelling.
13 Colette (2018)
Keira Knightley returned in the 2018 movie Colette, where she portrays the writer Colette. Colette was best known for writing the novel Gigi, which the Broadway version discovered Audrey Hepburn, who was unknown at the time. The movie follows young Colette’s move from the French countryside to Paris, where she discovers art and culture for the first time in her life. But because she is a woman, she runs into many obstacles that limit her potential. Colette is a magnificent look at France at the turn of the century through the lens of one remarkable woman.
12 Impromptu (1991)
Chronicling the passionate-yet-turbulent relationship between French novelist George Sand (the pen name for Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin) and Polish composer Frédéric Chopin in 1830s France, Impromptu features Judy Davis as the renowned writer who became one of the most acclaimed voices of the European Romantic era, centering on Sand as she becomes completely enamored by the sensitive Chopin (Hugh Grant). Sand dressed in men's clothes and lived under the pseudonym in Paris, where she pursued a complex relationship with the famous musician and competed for his time and affection while also working on her romance novels.
11 Before the Night Falls (2000)
Before Night Falls stars Javier Bardem as the Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas. He was a critic of the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro, leading to his arrest, eventual escape to the United States, and suicide due to worsening AIDS. His life and work were incredible, as he was a gay man vocal about his sexuality and politics, and Bardem commands presence as Arenas. Before Night Falls captures and brings to life a writer who was relatively unknown outside his home country.
10 Quills (2000)
Inspired by the intriguing life and career of French writer and nobleman Marquis de Sade, the critically acclaimed period drama Quills stars Geoffrey Rush as the exceptional yet controversial Sade, who was best known for his erotic works and for his literary representation of libertine sexuality. Kate Winslet appears as Madeleine "Maddy" LeClerc, who secretly published Sade's manuscripts while the revolutionary writer was incarcerated during the Reign of Terror in Paris. Sade would spend 32 years in confinement, with the engrossing picture fictionalizing the last ten years of his life while he was in an insane asylum.
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8 Midnight in Paris (2011)
Midnight in Paris is unique because of this: it features a fictional writer, played by Owen Wilson, interacting with real-life writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and Ernest Hemingway. Wilson, who is a struggling writer on vacation with his wealthy fiancée and her parents, rediscovers his love for writing and the mode of storytelling through his accidental time-traveling and interactions with these famous writers. While Paris often is reminiscent of nostalgia through the past, as jazz music trickles out 1920s parties, that longing for the past truly becomes evident throughout Midnight in Paris.
7 Kill Your Darlings (2013)
Kill Your Darlings follows the young college days of many famous authors of the Beat Generation, played by some of the best young actors in Hollywood. The film centers on Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe) and Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan) but also features William S. Burroughs (Ben Foster), Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston), and Edie Parker (Elizabeth Olsen). The film is a drama, romance, and murder mystery in an engaging story about the rebels of the 1950s that shaped an entire generation of writing and the fascinating time when they all knew each other.
6 Bright Star (2009)
Before there were television series like Dickinson, old poets like John Keats got their time to shine in biopics like Bright Star. Jane Campion’s film stars Ben Whishaw as Keats, while Abbie Cornish plays Fanny Brawne, the woman he loved. At the beginning of their relationship, it seems as if these two clash, but as the movie progresses, the audience discovers why they’re so perfect for each other. Bright Star is director Jane Campion’s devotion to Keats’ poetry and life personified and offers a stunning visual experience.
5 Adaptation (2000)
Nicolas Cage delivered an Oscar-nominated performance when he starred as screenwriter, novelist, and filmmaker Charlie Kaufman in Adaptation, which follows the self-loathing and depressed writer as he attempts to adapt Susan Orlean's nonfiction book The Orchid Thief for the big screen, all the while dealing with his freeloading, lazy twin brother (also played by Cage). Meryl Streep appears as a fictional version of the best-selling author Orlean, for which she won a Golden Globe Award. Adaptation has been lauded as one of the best movies of the 2000s, and its screenplay has been praised as among the finest ever written.
4 Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Released in 1998, Shakespeare in Love pairs Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) with a fictional love interest (Gwyneth Paltrow). The movie is breathtaking, mirroring the blocking and imagery created by Romeo and Juliet, but it also follows how a writer finds their inspiration in others, whether it’s through casual interactions or falling in love. Romantic, comedic, and witty, the film brings life into a classic figure in literary history in a way that charms audiences and critics alike, although the movie had its controversies as well.
3 Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021)
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tick, Tick…Boom! is every theater kid’s dream. It was a musical written by Jonathan Larson about his own life and feeling like he needed to succeed before his time was up. It almost seemed like Larson knew he was to die young, and he did the night before his smash hit musical Rent opened on Off-Broadway. In Miranda’s adaptation, Larson is portrayed by Andrew Garfield, who has an uncanny resemblance to Larson and manages to nail down his mannerisms. Tick, Tick…Boom! introduces an entirely new audience to Larson’s work and life while happily avoiding his tragic fate bogging down the storyline.
2 Iris (2001)
Silver screen greats Judi Dench and Kate Winslet each received an Academy Award nomination for their compelling portrayal of novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch in Iris, which chronicles the illustrious writer's enduring and influential relationship with literary critic John Bayley, with the actresses appearing as the younger and older version of Murdoch. The biographical drama shines a light on the extraordinary novelist from her early days as a scholar at Oxford to her 43-year marriage to Bayley, concluding with Murdoch's battle with Alzheimer's disease and subsequent death.
1 Capote (2005)
During his lifetime, Truman Capote was polarizing, a chameleon that managed to infiltrate the ranks of New York’s finest socialites. Capote is not a film about his swans; Capote (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is in Kansas investigating the murder of the Herb Family, which would become the basis of his bestselling nonfiction novel In Cold Blood. Hoffman is remarkable as Capote and truly becomes one with the eccentric author, and he would win the Academy Award for Best Actor because of his incredible performance.