ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we will explore how history or true events can serve as the source material for a strong and engaging film or television project. In the features Seabiscuit and Catch Me if You Can, we’ll see how their authors did not allow themselves to be locked into the minutia of the actual facts of an event but used selected elements of true history to explore the emotional truth of their characters and their situations. We will also study how unusual occurrences in history that had never previously provided the basis for a film can be dramatized, as in the feature Hidden Figures, or how a fresh look at a well-explored piece of history can produce an intriguing project like The Darkest Hour. But no matter how a writer approaches a historical project they must never lose sight of the careful and detailed research that will be necessary, as is exemplified in Shakespeare in Love. All of these dicta apply to television projects, as an analysis of The Empty Child, and an episode of Doctor Who will establish.
