List of non-fiction works made into feature films
This is a list of nonfiction works that have been made into feature films. The title of the work is followed by the work's author, the title of the film, and the year of the film. If a film has an alternate title based on geographical distribution, the title listed will be that of the widest distribution area.
The list does not include documentary films that are based on real events and people which are not based chiefly on a written work. For other documentary film categories, see documentaries.
Books[]
| Non-fiction work(s) | Film adaptation(s) |
|---|---|
| Across the Wide Missouri (1947), Bernard DeVoto | Across the Wide Missouri (1951) |
| Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors (1974), Piers Paul Read | Alive: The Miracle of the Andes (1993) |
| All the President's Men (1974), Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein | All the President's Men (1976) |
| An Anthropologist on Mars (1995), Oliver Sacks | At First Sight (1999) The Music Never Stopped (2011) |
| The Anarchist Cookbook, William Powell | The Anarchist Cookbook (2002) |
| And the Band Played On (1987), Randy Shilts | And the Band Played On (1993) |
| Awakenings (1973), Oliver Sacks | Awakenings (1990) |
| The Basketball Diaries (1978), Jim Carroll | The Basketball Diaries (1995) |
| Black Hawk Down (1999), Mark Bowden | Black Hawk Down (2001) |
| Bravo Two Zero (1993), Andy McNab | Bravo Two Zero (1999) |
| A Brief History of Time (1988), Stephen Hawking | A Brief History of Time (1991) |
| The Broken Seal: "Operation Magic" and the Secret Road to Pearl Harbor (1967), Ladislas Farago | Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) |
| Bully: A True Story of High School Revenge (1998), Jim Schutze | Bully (2001) |
| Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History (2003), George Crile III | Charlie Wilson's War (2007) |
| A Civil Action (1996), Jonathan Harr | A Civil Action (1998) |
| Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law (2002), Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler | North Country (2005) |
| The Conquest of Space (1949), Chesley Bonestell & Willy Ley | Conquest of Space (1955) |
| The Dam Busters (1951), Paul Brickhill | The Dam Busters (1954) Dambusters (TBA 2015) |
| Dead Man Walking (1993), Sister Helen Prejean | Dead Man Walking (1995) |
| Diamond Jim Brady (1933), Parker Morrell | Diamond Jim (1935) |
| A Diary of A Demonstrator (A Diary of A Demonstrator) (1983), Soe Hok Gie | Gie (2005) |
| Dispatches (1977), Michael Herr | Apocalypse Now (1979) Full Metal Jacket (1987) |
| Enemy Coast Ahead (1946), Guy Gibson | The Dam Busters (1954) |
| Escape from Alcatraz (1963), J. Campbell Bruce | Escape from Alcatraz (1979)[citation needed] |
| Estação Carandiru (Carandiru Station) (2001), Drauzio Varella | Carandiru, 2003 |
| Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) (1969), David Reuben | Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972) |
| The Execution of Charles Horman: An American Sacrifice (1978), Thomas Hauser | Missing (1982) |
| The Falcon and the Snowman: A True Story of Friendship and Espionage (1979), Robert Lindsey | The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) |
| Fast Food Nation (2001), Eric Schlosser | Fast Food Nation (2006) |
| The Final Days (1976), Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein | The Final Days (1989) |
| The Flight of Dragons (1979), Peter Dickinson | The Flight of Dragons (1982) (TV) |
| Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence (1996), Doris Pilkington Garimara | Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) |
| Freeing the Whales (1989), Tom Rose | Big Miracle (2012) |
| The French Connection (1969), Robin Moore | The French Connection (1971) |
| Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team and a Dream (1990), H. G. Bissinger | Friday Night Lights (2004) |
| The Game of Their Lives: The Untold Story of the World Cup's Biggest Upset (1996), Geoffrey Douglas | The Game of Their Lives (2005) |
| The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld (1928), Herbert Asbury | Gangs of New York (2002) |
| A Gloomy Soliloquy (1946), Olavi Paavolainen | Sign of the Beast (1981) |
| Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman (2005), Jamie Reidy | Love & Other Drugs (2010) |
| He's Just Not That Into You (2004), Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo | He's Just Not That Into You (2009) |
| The Hindenburg (1972), Michael M. Mooney | The Hindenburg (1975) |
| Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991), David Simon | Homicide: The Movie (2000) (TV) |
| In Cold Blood (1966), Truman Capote | In Cold Blood (1967) |
| Imperial Life in the Emerald City (2006), Rajiv Chandrasekaran | Green Zone (2010) |
| Into the Wild (1996), Jon Krakauer | Into the Wild (2007) |
| J'ai serré la main du diable (Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda) (2003), Roméo Dallaire | Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire (2004) Shake Hands with the Devil (2007) |
| Jarhead (2003), Anthony Swofford | Jarhead (2005) |
| The Last Days of Patton (1981), Ladislas Farago | The Last Days of Patton (1986) (TV) |
| Lazarus and the Hurricane: The Freeing of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (1991), Sam Chaiton and Terry Swinton | The Hurricane (1999) |
| The Life and Times of Cleopatra (1958), by Charles Marie Franzero | Cleopatra (1963) |
| Live from Baghdad (1991), Robert Wiener | Live from Baghdad (2002) |
| The Longest Day (1959), Cornelius Ryan | The Longest Day (1962) |
| Lost Moon (1994), Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger | Apollo 13 (1995) |
| Magic Fire: The Story of Wagner's Life and Music (1954), Bertita Harding | Magic Fire (1954) |
| The Man-eaters of Tsavo (1907), John Henry Patterson | Bwana Devil (1952) The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) |
| The Mars Project (1952), Wernher von Braun | Conquest of Space (1955) |
| The Men Who Stare at Goats (2004), Jon Ronson | The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) |
| Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994), John Berendt | Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) |
| The Mountain Road (1958), Theodore H. White | The Mountain Road (1961) |
| The Mothman Prophecies (1975), John Keel | The Mothman Prophecies (2002) |
| Murder, Inc. (1951), Burton Turkus | Murder, Inc. (1960) |
| The Naked Civil Servant (1968), Quentin Crisp | The Naked Civil Servant (1975) (TV) |
| Never Cry Wolf (1963), Farley Mowat | Never Cry Wolf (1983) |
| A Night to Remember (1955), Walter Lord | A Night to Remember (1958) |
| Ondskan (The Evil) (1981), Jan Guillou | Evil (2003) |
| The One That Got Away (1956), Kendall Burt and James Leasor | The One That Got Away (1957) |
| Operation Cicero (Der Fall Cicero) (1950), Ludwig Carl Moyzisch | 5 Fingers (1952) |
| The Orchid Thief (1998), Susan Orlean | Adaptation. (2002) |
| Patton: Ordeal and Triumph (1963), Ladislas Farago | Patton (1970) |
| The Perfect Storm (1997), Sebastian Junger | The Perfect Storm (2000) |
| Pork Chop Hill: The American Fighting Man in Action, Korea, Spring, 1953 (1956), S. L. A. Marshall | Pork Chop Hill (1959) |
| Prince of the City: The True Story of a Cop Who Knew Too Much (1978), Robert Daley | Prince of the City (1981) |
| Proved Innocent: The Story of Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four (1990), Gerry Conlon | In the Name of the Father (1993) |
| Queen Bees and Wannabes (2002), Rosalind Wiseman | Mean Girls (2004) * Mean Girls 2 (2011) (TV) |
| Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case (1985), Alan Dershowitz | Reversal of Fortune (1990) |
| The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist (2009), Matt Baglio | The Rite (2011) |
| Rogue Trader: How I Brought Down Barings Bank and Shook the Financial World (1995), Nick Leeson | Rogue Trader (1999) |
| The Saga of Billy the Kid (1925), Walter Noble Burns | Billy the Kid (1930) Billy the Kid (1941) The Outlaw (1943) The Left Handed Gun (1958) Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid (1989) (TV) |
| The Sea Around Us (1951), Rachel Carson | The Sea Around Us (1953) |
| A Season on the Brink (1986), John Feinstein | A Season on the Brink (2002) |
| The Secret Life of Plants (1973), Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird | The Secret Life of Plants (1979) |
| See No Evil (2003), Robert Baer | Syriana (2005) |
| The Serpent and the Rainbow (1985), Wade Davis | The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) |
| The Short-Timers (1979), Gustav Hasford | Full Metal Jacket (1987) |
| The Smartest Guys in the Room (2003), Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind | Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) |
| The Story of Mankind (1921), Hendrik Willem van Loon | The Story of Mankind (1957) |
| Storyville, New Orleans (1974), Al Rose | Pretty Baby (1978) |
| The Strawberry Statement (1969), James Simon Kunen | The Strawberry Statement (1970) |
| Ten Days that Shook the World (1919), John Reed | October: Ten Days That Shook the World (1928) Reds (1981) Red Bells (1982) |
| Ten Rillington Place (1961), Ludovic Kennedy | 10 Rillington Place (1971) |
| The Three Faces of Eve (1957), Corbett H. Thigpen and Hervey M. Cleckley | The Three Faces of Eve (1957) |
| Touching the Void (1988), Joe Simpson | Touching the Void (2003) |
| True Blue: The Oxford Boat Race Mutiny (1987), Daniel Topolski | True Blue (1996) |
| Triumph Over Pain (1940), René Fülöp-Miller | The Great Moment (1944) |
| The Turning Point (1982), Fritjof Capra | Mindwalk (1990) |
| Twelve Days of Terror (2001), Richard G. Fernicola | 12 Days of Terror (2004) |
| We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young (1992), Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway | We Were Soldiers (2002) |
| The White Rabbit (1952), Bruce Marshall | The White Rabbit (1967) (TV) (mini) |
| Victory Through Air Power (1942), Alexander P. de Seversky | Victory Through Air Power (1943) |
| Zodiac (1986), Robert Graysmith | Zodiac (2007) |
Biographies[]
| Biography | Film adaptation(s) |
|---|---|
| 84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff | 84 Charing Cross Road, 1975, 1987 |
| Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel, Marty Jezer | Steal This Movie!, 2000 |
| Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, Spike Milligan | Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, 1972 |
| The Agony and the Ecstasy, Irving Stone | The Agony and the Ecstasy, 1965 |
| Aimée & Jaguar, Erica Fischer | Aimée & Jaguar, 1999 |
| Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt | Angela's Ashes, 1999 |
| Before Night Falls, Reinaldo Arenas | Before Night Falls, 2000 |
| Blow: How a Small- Town Boy Made $100 Million With the Medellin Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All, Bruce Porter | Blow, 2001 |
| Bound for Glory, Woody Guthrie | Bound for Glory, 1976 |
| Camille Claudel, Reine-Marie Paris | Camille Claudel, 1988 |
| Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career, George Plimpton | Infamous, 2006 |
| Carve Her Name with Pride, R. J. Minney | Carve Her Name with Pride, 1958 |
| Cash: The Autobiography, Johnny Cash | Walk the Line, 2005 |
| Castaway, Lucy Irvine | Castaway, 1986 |
| Catch Me If You Can, Frank Abagnale | Catch Me If You Can, 2002 |
| Chaplin: His Life and Art, David Robinson | Chaplin, 1992 |
| Cheaper by the Dozen, Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey | Cheaper by the Dozen, 1950 |
| Crazy, Benjamin Lebert | Crazy, 2000 |
| Elegy for Iris, John Bayley | Iris, 2001 |
| Finding Fish, Antwone Quenton Fisher | Antwone Fisher, 2002 |
| Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, Hayden Herrera | Frida, 2002 |
| The General, Paul Williams | The General, 1998 |
| Girl, Interrupted, Susanna Kaysen | Girl, Interrupted, 1999 |
| Gorillas in the Mist, Dian Fossey | Gorillas in the Mist, 1988 |
| The Great Impostor, Robert Crichton | The Great Impostor, 1961 |
| Gypsy: A Memoir, Gypsy Rose Lee | Gypsy, 1962, 1993 |
| Hideous Kinky, Esther Freud | Hideous Kinky, 1998 |
| The Honest Courtesan, Margaret Rosenthal | Dangerous Beauty, 1998 |
| I, Tina, Tina Turner | What's Love Got to Do with It, 1993 |
| I Was Cicero, Elyesa Bazna | 5 Fingers, 1952 |
| Ich war Hitlerjunge Salomon (I Was Hitler Youth Salomon), Solomon Perel | Europa Europa, 1990 |
| Inside Hitler's Bunker, Joachim Fest | Der Untergang (Downfall), 2004 |
| Iron & Silk, Mark Salzman | Iron & Silk, 1990 |
| Jackson Pollock: An American Saga, Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith | Pollock, 2000 |
| Joe Gould's Secret, Joseph Mitchell | Joe Gould's Secret, 2000 |
| The Learning Tree, Gordon Parks | The Learning Tree, 1969 |
| Leaving Las Vegas, John O'Brien | Leaving Las Vegas, 1995 |
| Life Is Not a Fairy Tale, Fantasia Barrino | The Fantasia Barrino Story, 2006 |
| Man in Black: His Own Story in His Own Words, Johnny Cash | Walk the Line, 2005 |
| The Man Who Was Peter Pan (play), Allan Knee | Finding Neverland, 2004 |
| Marie Antoinette: The Journey, Antonia Fraser | Marie-Antoinette, 2006 |
| Midnight Express, Billy Hayes | Midnight Express, 1978 |
| A Mighty Heart, Mariane Pearl | A Mighty Heart, 2007 |
| Mommie Dearest, Christina Crawford | Mommie Dearest, 1981 |
| The Motorcycle Diaries, Che Guevara | The Motorcycle Diaries, 2004 |
| My Autobiography, Charlie Chaplin | Chaplin, 1992 |
| My Early Life: A Roving Commission, Winston Churchill | Young Winston, 1972 |
| My Father and Myself, J. R. Ackerley | Secret Orchards, 1979 |
| My Left Foot, Christy Brown | My Left Foot, 1989 |
| My Posse Don't Do Homework, Louanne Johnson | Dangerous Minds, 1995 |
| Nine and a Half Weeks: a memoir of a love affair, Elizabeth McNeill | 9½ Weeks, 1986 |
| One Who Walked Alone and Day of the Stranger, Novalyne Price Ellis | The Whole Wide World, 1996 |
| Our Cancer Year, Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner | American Splendor, 2003 |
| Our Sunshine, Robert Drewe | Ned Kelly, 2003 |
| Out of Africa, Karen Blixen | Out of Africa, 1985 |
| Papillon, Henri Charrière | Papillon, 1973 |
| The Pianist, Władysław Szpilman | The Pianist, 2002 |
| Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Jean Kerr | Please Don't Eat the Daisies, 1960 |
| Prisoners are People, Kenyon J. Scudder | Unchained, 1955 |
| Private Parts, Howard Stern | Private Parts, 1997 |
| Prozac Nation, Elizabeth Wurtzel | Prozac Nation, 2001 |
| Raging Bull: My Story, Jake LaMotta | Raging Bull, 1980 |
| Riding in Cars with Boys, Beverly D'Onofrio | Riding in Cars with Boys, 2001 |
| Rocket Boys, Homer Hickam | October Sky, 1999 |
| A Rumor of War, Philip Caputo | A Rumor of War, 1980 |
| Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs | Running with Scissors, 2006 |
| Savage Messiah, H. S. Ede | Savage Messiah, 1972 |
| Seabiscuit: An American Legend, Laura Hillenbrand | Seabiscuit, 2003 |
| The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T. E. Lawrence | Lawrence of Arabia, 1962 A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia, 1990 |
| Seven Years in Tibet, Heinrich Harrer | Seven Years in Tibet, 1997 |
| Śmierć Miasta (Death of a City), Władysław Szpilman | The Pianist, 2002 |
| The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, Maria von Trapp | The Sound of Music, 1965 |
| Stung, Gary Ross | Owning Mahowny, 2003 |
| To America with Love, Abbie Hoffman | Steal This Movie!, 2000 |
| The True Story of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero, Maxwell Anderson | The Wrong Man, 1956 |
| Truman, David McCullough | Truman, 1995 |
| Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch Albom | Tuesdays With Morrie, 1999 |
| UFO Crash at Roswell, Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt | Roswell, 1994 |
| Various articles, Leon G. Turrou | Confessions of a Nazi Spy, 1939 |
| Various works, Mark Brandon Read | Chopper, 2000 |
| Viva Villa!, Edgecumb Pinchon & Odo B. Stade | Viva Villa!, 1934 |
| Wallace : The Classic Portrait of Alabama Governor George Wallace, Marshall Frady | George Wallace, 1997 |
| The Walton Experience, Travis Walton | Fire in the Sky, 1993 |
| The Wild Boy of Aveyron, Jean Itard | L'Enfant Sauvage (Wild Child), 1970 |
| Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi, Bob Woodward | Wired, 1989 |
| Wise Guy, Nicholas Pileggi | Goodfellas, 1990 |
| Young Man with a Horn, Dorothy Baker | Young Man with a Horn, 1950 |
Essays and articles[]
| Essay/article | Film adaptation(s) |
|---|---|
| "Adventures in the Ransom Trade", William Prochnau, Vanity Fair | Proof of Life, 2000 |
| "The Allman Brothers Story",[1] Cameron Crowe and Faybeth Diamond, Rolling Stone magazine, December 6, 1973 | Almost Famous, 2000 |
| "The Ballad of the Urban Cowboy: America's Search for True Grit", Aaron Latham, Esquire, 1978 | Urban Cowboy, 1980 |
| "Biker Boyz", article by Michael Gougis, New Times LA, April 2000 | Biker Boyz, 2003 |
| "The boys in the bank: A fouled-up holdup moves step by step from threats to farce to violence", article by P. F. Kluge and Thomas Moore in Life magazine (September 22, 1972)[2] | Dog Day Afternoon, 1975 |
| "The Death and Life of Dith Pran", Sydney Schanberg | The Killing Fields, 1984 |
| Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson, based on two-part series in Rolling Stone, 1971 | Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas |
| "Life's Swell", Susan Orlean, Women Outside magazine, 1998 | Blue Crush, 2002 |
| "The Man Who Knew Too Much", Marie Brenner, Vanity Fair, 1996 | The Insider, 1999 |
| "Mark of a murderer", article by Mike McAlary, Esquire, 1997 | City by the Sea, 2002 |
| "The Muse of the Coyote Ugly", article by Elizabeth Gilbert, GQ Magazine, March 1997 | Coyote Ugly, 2000 |
| "Racer X", Ken Li, Vibe magazine | The Fast and the Furious, 2001 |
| "Shattered Glass" by Buzz Bissinger, Vanity Fair, 1998 | Shattered Glass, 2003 |
| "Someone to Lean On" by Gary Smith, Sports Illustrated, December 16, 1996 | Radio, 2003 |
| "Something's Got To Give", Darcy Frey, The New York Times Magazine | Pushing Tin, 1999 |
| "To See and Not See"[1], Oliver Sacks | At First Sight, 1999 |
| Tora! Tora! Tora!, Gordon W. Prange, Reader's Digest, October–November 1963 | Tora! Tora! Tora!, 1970 |
| "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night", New York, Nik Cohn | Saturday Night Fever, 1977 |
See also[]
- Film adaptation
- Films based on the Bible
- List of fiction works made into feature films
- Lists of film source material
References[]
- ^ Reprint on Crowe's website Archived 2006-08-25 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Based on the Book Archived 2006-05-12 at the Wayback Machine
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