Simple Living
11-23-2007, 11:52 PM
This is a list of movies about writers and the writing life, including poets, novelists, journalists, screenwriters, documentarians, lyricists, storybook writers and, even a few editors.
They fall into all categories - comedy, drama, musical, documentary, foreign, etc., The writer in the film may play a major or minor role. There are enough films here to keep anyone inspired for a good long time! The list is not complete, of course, and will be edited periodically to add new listings. If you know of a film that isn't on the list, feel free to post it and I'll update the list.
The films that appear on this list have characters who are writers mentioned in its plot summaries.
Movies with Writers or About Writing
1408 (nonfiction writer who debunks paranormal activity)
84 Charing Cross Road (film about author C.S. Lewis)
A Murder of Crows (A disbarred lawyer takes credit for a late friend's book.)
Absence of Malice (reporter)
Ace in the Hole (1951, reporter)
Adaptation (screenwriters)
Agatha (1979, about mystery writer Agatha Christie)
Alex and Emma (A writer must turn out a novel in 30 days or face his loan sharks.)
All the President´s Men (reporters)
Almost Famous (2000, teen hired to write story for Rolling Stone Mag.)
An Angel at My Table (1990, writer)
Amadeus (musician)
American Dreamer (1984, novel ghostwriter)
American Splendor (comic books)
Apocalypse, The (1998, journalists)
Appointment, The (1991, reporter)
As Good As It Gets (novelist)
Atonement (2007, writer)
Author! Author! (1982, playwright)
Ayn Rand -- A Sense of Life (documentary of author)
Bad and the Beautiful, The (1952, novelist)
Balzac: A Life of Passion (1999, about the very determined writer)
Barfly (1987, poet)
Barton Fink (playwright turned screenwriter)
Basic Instinct (crime novelist)
Basic Instinct 2 (crime novelist)
Beat (2000, story of writer William Seward Burroughs)
Beaumarchais, the Scoundrel (playwright)
Beautiful Dreamers (poet Walt Whitman is a character)
Becoming Colette (novelists)
Becoming Jane (2007, biographical portrait of Jane Austen)
Becoming the Author of Your Life (children’s book author)
Before Night Falls (poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas)
Beloved Infidel (Hollywood writer F. Scott Fitzgerald)
Best Man, The (1999, a character’s autobiographical novel)
Best Seller (1987, cop turned writer)
Big Bad Love (struggling writer)
Booky Makes Her Mark (struggling writer)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (a main character is a novelist)
Breakfast of Champions (1999, a character is an overly-creative sci-fi writer.)
Broken Bridges (musicians)
Brother to Brother (black writer)
Bukowski: Born Into This (documentary of author Charles Bukowski)
Bullets Over Broadway (playwright)
Cabin by the Lake (screenwriter)
Call Northside 777 (reporter)
Capote (about author Truman Capote)
Carolina (dramatization on the life of Carolina Maria de Jesus)
Carrington (relationship between painter Dora Carrington and author Lytton Strachey)
Celeste (novelist)
Chapter Two (novelist)
Charles Bukowski Tapes, The (documentary of the author)
Children of the Century (novelists)
Citizen Kane (reporters)
City in Fear (newspaper industry)
Color of Pomegranates, The (poet)
Continental Divide (journalist)
Cross Creek (story of author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings)
Croupier (aspiring novelist)
Cry Freedom (1987, journalist)
C.S. Lewis & The Chronicles of Narnia (Documentary)
Cyrano de Bergerac (romantic poet)
Dan in Real Life (newspaper advice columnist)
Dark Half, The (novelist)
Dark Side of the Heart, The (poet)
Dead Poet’s Society (poets)
Deadline U.S.A. (newspaper editor)
Deathtrap (1982, playwright)
Deconstructing Harry (novelist)
Defense of the Realm (reporter)
Delirious (1991, soap opera writer)
Desperation (2006, tv movie with a novelist)
Diary of Anne Frank, The (famous diarist)
Doctor Zhivago (Russian doctor/poet)
Door in the Floor, The (children’s book author)
Double Take (1997, writer who witnesses a murder)
Down With Love (love between a journalist and feminine advice author)
Dreamchild (explores the darker side of Alice from Alice in Wonderland)
Duplex (2003, writer, probably a novelist.)
Elling (poet)
End of the Affair, The (novelist)
Eternity and a Day (writer who only has a few days to live)
Even Money (novelist who is a gambler)
Evening (minor character is a wannabe writer who talks a lot about writing.)
Factotum (novelist)
Father's Day (a main character is a writer)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (drug addled gonzo journalist)
Fiction and Other Truths: A Film About Jane Rule (documentary of of writer Jane Rule)
Final Draft (depressed novelist)
Finding Forrester (writing prodigy and a reclusive author)
Finding Neverland (story of JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan)
Flower of My Secret, The (sentimental novelist)
Freedom Writers (teacher who uses writing to help others change their worlds)
French Exit (struggling screenwriters)
Front Page, The (1974, reporters)
Front, The (cashier posing as a writer to help black listed writers in the 50’s)
Funny Farm (1988, sports journalist wants to write a novel)
Get Bruce! (tribute to celebrity writer Bruce Vilanch)
Gothic (1986, birth of Mary Shelley’s horror classic Frankenstein)
Half Light (novelist)
Hamsun (about famous Norwegian author, Knut Hamsun)
Haunted Summer (about authors Lord Byron, Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley
Hav Plenty (an almost broke would-be novelist)
Heartburn (1986, Washington journalists)
Heavenly Creatures (two young friends who love literature write about their own fantasy land.)
Henry and June (a main character tries to write a pseudo-biography)
Henry Fool (a witty roguish, but talent-less novelist)
Her Alibi (1989, A writer of BAD detective novels is in full writers' block)
His Girl Friday (newspaper editor and reporter)
Hit and Runway (screenwriters)
Hoax, The (2006, bogus biography writer)
Hours, The (includes a famous author dying of AIDS)
How to Kill Your Neighbor’s Dog (shy, chain-smoking, insomniac, LA playwright)
How to Murder Your Wife (cartoon writer)
Hunting Party, The (2007, journalists)
I Capture the Castle (novelist desperate to repeat the success of his first novel)
I Remember Mama (novelist who credits her mother for her success)
Il Postino (1994, poet)
Impromtu (1991, a party is thrown for famous musicians, artists, and writers of the day)
In a Lonely Place (A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect)
In Love and War (Ernest Hemingway is a reporter in Italy during World War I.)
In the Mouth of Madness (horror writer)
Infamous (about author Truman Capote)
Iris (2001, novelist battling Alzheimers)
Irish Writers (documentary of James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw.)
Isn't She Great (An unsuccessful over-the-top actress becomes a successful over-the-top authoress)
It Happened One Night (1934, reporter)
Jane Austen Book Club, The (6 people who get together once a month to discuss one of Jane Austens books)
Joe Gould's Secret (New Yorker staff writer, a poetry club)
John Steinbeck: An American Writer (documentary from Biography Channel)
Joshua Then and Now (alleged autobiography of Jewish writer Mordecai Richler)
Julia (1977, playwright)
Just Write (A Hollywood tour bus driver poses as a screenwriter)
Kafka (Soderbergh's film about Franz Kafka.)
Keats and His Nightingale: A Blind Date (film about Keats’ poetry and readers)
Kissing a Fool (a main character is a book editor)
La Dolce Vita (a young playboy journalist
Lake House, The (an exchange of love letters through time)
Left Behind: The Movie (a television journalist)
Left Behind II: Tribulation Force (a television journalist)
Left Behind: World at War (a television journalist)
Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles (glimpse into the mind of an enigmatic writer)
Libeled Lady (main character is the chief editor of a newspaper)
Life of Emile Zola, The (biopic of the famous French muckraking writer)
Little Women (Louisa May Alcott's autobiographical account of her life with her three sisters)
Lonely Lady, The (screenwriter)
Long Day's Journey Into Night (autobiographical account of Author Eugene O'Neill)
Lost Weekend, The (an unsuccessful, alcoholic writer)
Love and Death on Long Island (stuffy British author)
Luther (monk who translates the New Testament from Latin into German so everyone can read it.)
Man From Elysian Fields, The (A failed novelist)
Mark Twain Tonight (A one-man show in which Hal Holbrook becomes Twain.)
Martian Child, The (recently widowed science-fiction writer who adopts a 6-year-old boy)
Masters of Horror: Stuart Gordon: The Black Cat (Edgar Allen Poe suffers from writer's block.)
Meet John Doe (reporter)
Mindwalk (1990, poet)
Misery (kidnapped novelist)
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (fictionalized account of Japanese author Yukio Mishima)
Miss Potter (biography of author Beatrix Potter)
Mission (a young New Yorker dreams of writing the great American novel)
Morvern Callar (girlfriend passes off dead boyfriend’s unpublished novel as her own)
Mother (A neurotic, twice divorced sci-fi writer moves back in with his mom)
Moulin Rouge! (an impoverished poet and writer)
Mr. Holland’s Opus (musician and composer)
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (the inimitable poet and essayist Dorothy Parker)
Mule Skinner Blues (documentary of quirky artists)
Muse, The (A comedy about a neurotic screenwriter and his modern-day muse.)
Music and Lyrics (songwriting)
My Dear Secretary (bestselling novelist hires aspiring novelist as his secretary)
My Favorite Year (junior writer on a top rated variety/comedy show in the 50’s)
My House in Umbria (romance novelist)
My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (a brilliant painter, poet and author)
Mystery of Rampo, The (a writer whose latest work is censored by the government)
Naked Jane (typist who writes a novel in her spare time)
Naked Lunch (writer)
Necronomicon (H.P. Lovecraft anthology is divided into four segments.)
Never Been Kissed (journalist)
Neverwas (children’s book author)
Night and the Moment, The (A philandering writer)
Nora (author James Joyce and his wife)
Number 23, The (becomes obsessed with a novel that he believes was written about him.)
One True Thing (a character is a writer with an unfinished novel, even after he’s spent the advance.)
Orange County (surfer kid who dreams of being a writer and going to Stanford)
Out of Order (screenwriter who aspires to make art, but makes his living writing popcorn movies)
Overnight (2003, young screenwriter gets a dream movie deal directing his own script.)
Pandaemonium (poets)
Paper, The (2007, Documentary on the pressures of modern journalism)
Paper, The (1994, film about a New York City tabloid)
Paperback Hero (1999, a a handsome roadtrain driver who becomes a best-selling romance novelist)
Paperback Romance (Australian romance novelist)
Parallax View, The (reporter)
Paris When It Sizzles (screenwriter)
Pelican Brief, The (investigative journalist)
Perfect Stranger (2007, A journalist goes under cover to ferret out her best friend's killer.)
Permanent Midnight (comedy writer with a heroin habit.)
Philadelphia Story, The (a tabloid reporter)
Pitch (2006, screenwriters)
Pitch (1997, Two young writers try to pitch their script to the big and famous.
Platinum Blonde (1931, a hard-nosed newspaper reporter)
Player, The (A studio executive is being blackmailed by a writer whose script he rejected)
Pola X (a young man of privilege, whose anonymously-published novel is a hit)
Power Play (2002, journalist)
Prick Up Your Ears (the spectacular life and violent death of British playwright Joe Orton)
Prize, The (1963, Nobel prize in literature)
Producers, The (1968 and 2005, films about Broadway flops)
Proprietor, The (An expatriated French novelist returns to Paris)
Prozac Nation (a teenager accepted into Harvard with a scholarship in journalism.)
Pulp (1972, A seedy writer of sleazy pulp novels)
Purple Violets (writer struggles with the pressure of becoming the next important American writer.)
Quiet American, The (1958 and 2002, reporter)
Quills (The infamous writer, The Marquis de Sade of 18th Century France)
Reds (A radical American journalist)
Regeneration (1997, poets)
Resurrecting the Champ (Up-and-coming sports reporter rescues a homeless man.)
Roman Holiday (reporter)
Romancing the Stone (romance novelist)
Running with Scissors (Memoir of a writer)
Runoilija ja muusa (Semi-fictitious biopic of Finnish poet Eino Leino)
Sade (The infamous writer, Marquis de Sade)
Salem's Lot (Writer Ben Mears's childhood home of Jerusalem's Lot is terrorized by vampires.)
Saint-Ex (Poetic biography of author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.)
Salvador (1986, A journalist, down on his luck)
Sea That Thinks, The (German film “Zee die denkt, De” – screenwriter)
Secret Window (A successful writer is accused for plagiarism by a strange man.)
Shadowlands (world-renowned writer, C.S. Lewis meets his poet wife)
Shadows in the Sun (An aspiring young writer tracks a literary titan suffering from writers block.)
Shakespeare in Love (A young Shakespeare)
Shattered Glass (The true story of a young journalist who fell from grace fabricating his stories.)
She Devil (romance novelist)
Shining, The (aspiring novelist with writer’s block)
Shipping News, The (reporter)
Sid Caesar Collection, The: Inside the Writer’s Room (comedy writer)
Sideways (a failed writer living a meager existence)
Singing Detective, The (an ill writer hallucinates musical numbers and paranoid plots.)
Skin Deep (1989, a womanizing, drunken, alcoholic writer)
Sleepless in Seattle (Meg Ryan's character is a reporter.)
Sleuth (1972, successful writer of detective stories)
Sleuth (2007, an aging writer matches wits with a struggling actor)
Sliver (a book editor and an author of thriller novels)
Snows of Kilimanjaro, The (novelist)
Something's Gotta Give (a character is a playwright)
Sophie's Choice (the movie's narrator, a young American writer)
Squid and the Whale, The (two selfish, arrogant writers divorce)
Stand By Me (the narrator is a writer)
Starting Out in the Evening (a once great novelist and now-retired literary professor.)
Stone Reader (documentary where the director director traces "one-book" authors)
Stranger Than Fiction (2006, IRS agent hear an author inside his head narrating his life.)
Stranger Than Fiction (2005, famous writer father-unknown writer son)
Stranger Than Fiction (2000, best-selling author)
Street Smart (A New York journalist)
Sunset Boulevard (1950, A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star)
Superman (infamous reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane)
Swann (poet)
Sweet Liberty (writer of a scholarly book on the revolutionary war and sells the film rights.)
Sweet Smell of Success (world-famed columnist whose gossip is gospel to sixty million readers)
Swimming Pool (2003, British mystery author visits her publisher’s home in the south of France.)
Sylvia (2003, Story of the relationship between the poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.)
Sylvia (1965, Sylvia West is a young poetess engaged to an eccentric millionaire.)
Teacher’s Pet (1958, hardboiled city editor of a newspaper)
Technical Writer, The (an agoraphobic technical writer)
The Way We Were (main character publishes a small book and wants to write a screenplay.)
Theodora Goes Wild (Small-town prudes are up in arms over 'The Sinner,' a sexy best-seller.)
Third Man, The (An out of work pulp fiction novelist)
Throw Momma From the Train (A writing professor with a literary grudge against his ex-wife)
Time Changer (writer goes over 100 years into the future, offering a glimpse of where his writing will lead.)
Time Regained (dying French author, Marcel Proust, floats through a world of flashbacks and fantasies.)
Tom & Viv (poet)
Total Eclipse (1995, French poet)
Tune in Tomorrow (local radio station that hires a new scriptwriter known for great drama)
Under the Tuscan Sun (a just-divorced writer buys a villa in Tuscany on a whim)
Water's Edge (2003, novelist)
Welcome to Sarajevo (an adrenaline-loving bunch of reporters)
What Happened to Kerouac (a must-see for any fan of Jack Kerouac)
Where Sleeping Dogs Lie (A murder mystery writer)
Whisper of the Heart (Young girl who enjoys writing makes a discovery about the books she reads.).
Whole Wide World, The (true story of eccentric author of 'Conan the Barbarian')
Wild in the Country (A troubled young man discovers that he has a knack for writing.)
Wilde (The story of Oscar Wilde)
William Gibson: No Maps For These Territories (author expounding on a raft of subjects)
William S. Burroughs: Commissioner of Sewers (An hour-long interview with the author)
Winter Passing (reclusive novelist)
Wonder Boys (a professor/writer living in Pittsburgh who is struggling with writer's block.)
Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, The (The story of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm)
World According to Garp, The (an oddball writer who grapples with the cruel world)
Writer's Block (1996, Two inept screenwriters battling their own Hollywood blockbuster.)
Writer’s Block (2003, an aspiring screenwriter assigned his first project - but only 3 days to complete it.)
Writer’s Block (2007, A man is forced to write a drama on a one day deadline.)
Xiang ji mao yi yang fei (an unknown young poet)
Year of Living Dangerously, The (a journalist on his first job)
Youngblood Hawke (truck driver from KY who goes to NYC to become a hot-shot writer)
You’ve Got Mail (about bookstore owners, but I had to include it!)
Zodiac (reporters)
Great Writers (series):
- Alberto Moravia
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
- Anthony Burgess
- Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
- Isaac Bashevis Singer
- Jack London
- John Cocteau
- John Steinbeck
- Joseph Conrad
- Roald Dahl
- Salman Rushdie
- Tennessee Williams
- Truman Capote
Great Women Writers (series):
- Bronte Sisters, The
- Emily Dickinson
- Jane Austen
Famous Authors (series):
- Bronte Sisters, The
- Charles Dickens
- Jane Austen
- Earnest Hemmingway
- Edgar Allan Poe
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
- George Orwell
- John Steinbeck
- Mark Twain
- William Blake
- William Faulkner
- William Shakespeare
They fall into all categories - comedy, drama, musical, documentary, foreign, etc., The writer in the film may play a major or minor role. There are enough films here to keep anyone inspired for a good long time! The list is not complete, of course, and will be edited periodically to add new listings. If you know of a film that isn't on the list, feel free to post it and I'll update the list.
The films that appear on this list have characters who are writers mentioned in its plot summaries.
Movies with Writers or About Writing
1408 (nonfiction writer who debunks paranormal activity)
84 Charing Cross Road (film about author C.S. Lewis)
A Murder of Crows (A disbarred lawyer takes credit for a late friend's book.)
Absence of Malice (reporter)
Ace in the Hole (1951, reporter)
Adaptation (screenwriters)
Agatha (1979, about mystery writer Agatha Christie)
Alex and Emma (A writer must turn out a novel in 30 days or face his loan sharks.)
All the President´s Men (reporters)
Almost Famous (2000, teen hired to write story for Rolling Stone Mag.)
An Angel at My Table (1990, writer)
Amadeus (musician)
American Dreamer (1984, novel ghostwriter)
American Splendor (comic books)
Apocalypse, The (1998, journalists)
Appointment, The (1991, reporter)
As Good As It Gets (novelist)
Atonement (2007, writer)
Author! Author! (1982, playwright)
Ayn Rand -- A Sense of Life (documentary of author)
Bad and the Beautiful, The (1952, novelist)
Balzac: A Life of Passion (1999, about the very determined writer)
Barfly (1987, poet)
Barton Fink (playwright turned screenwriter)
Basic Instinct (crime novelist)
Basic Instinct 2 (crime novelist)
Beat (2000, story of writer William Seward Burroughs)
Beaumarchais, the Scoundrel (playwright)
Beautiful Dreamers (poet Walt Whitman is a character)
Becoming Colette (novelists)
Becoming Jane (2007, biographical portrait of Jane Austen)
Becoming the Author of Your Life (children’s book author)
Before Night Falls (poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas)
Beloved Infidel (Hollywood writer F. Scott Fitzgerald)
Best Man, The (1999, a character’s autobiographical novel)
Best Seller (1987, cop turned writer)
Big Bad Love (struggling writer)
Booky Makes Her Mark (struggling writer)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (a main character is a novelist)
Breakfast of Champions (1999, a character is an overly-creative sci-fi writer.)
Broken Bridges (musicians)
Brother to Brother (black writer)
Bukowski: Born Into This (documentary of author Charles Bukowski)
Bullets Over Broadway (playwright)
Cabin by the Lake (screenwriter)
Call Northside 777 (reporter)
Capote (about author Truman Capote)
Carolina (dramatization on the life of Carolina Maria de Jesus)
Carrington (relationship between painter Dora Carrington and author Lytton Strachey)
Celeste (novelist)
Chapter Two (novelist)
Charles Bukowski Tapes, The (documentary of the author)
Children of the Century (novelists)
Citizen Kane (reporters)
City in Fear (newspaper industry)
Color of Pomegranates, The (poet)
Continental Divide (journalist)
Cross Creek (story of author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings)
Croupier (aspiring novelist)
Cry Freedom (1987, journalist)
C.S. Lewis & The Chronicles of Narnia (Documentary)
Cyrano de Bergerac (romantic poet)
Dan in Real Life (newspaper advice columnist)
Dark Half, The (novelist)
Dark Side of the Heart, The (poet)
Dead Poet’s Society (poets)
Deadline U.S.A. (newspaper editor)
Deathtrap (1982, playwright)
Deconstructing Harry (novelist)
Defense of the Realm (reporter)
Delirious (1991, soap opera writer)
Desperation (2006, tv movie with a novelist)
Diary of Anne Frank, The (famous diarist)
Doctor Zhivago (Russian doctor/poet)
Door in the Floor, The (children’s book author)
Double Take (1997, writer who witnesses a murder)
Down With Love (love between a journalist and feminine advice author)
Dreamchild (explores the darker side of Alice from Alice in Wonderland)
Duplex (2003, writer, probably a novelist.)
Elling (poet)
End of the Affair, The (novelist)
Eternity and a Day (writer who only has a few days to live)
Even Money (novelist who is a gambler)
Evening (minor character is a wannabe writer who talks a lot about writing.)
Factotum (novelist)
Father's Day (a main character is a writer)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (drug addled gonzo journalist)
Fiction and Other Truths: A Film About Jane Rule (documentary of of writer Jane Rule)
Final Draft (depressed novelist)
Finding Forrester (writing prodigy and a reclusive author)
Finding Neverland (story of JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan)
Flower of My Secret, The (sentimental novelist)
Freedom Writers (teacher who uses writing to help others change their worlds)
French Exit (struggling screenwriters)
Front Page, The (1974, reporters)
Front, The (cashier posing as a writer to help black listed writers in the 50’s)
Funny Farm (1988, sports journalist wants to write a novel)
Get Bruce! (tribute to celebrity writer Bruce Vilanch)
Gothic (1986, birth of Mary Shelley’s horror classic Frankenstein)
Half Light (novelist)
Hamsun (about famous Norwegian author, Knut Hamsun)
Haunted Summer (about authors Lord Byron, Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley
Hav Plenty (an almost broke would-be novelist)
Heartburn (1986, Washington journalists)
Heavenly Creatures (two young friends who love literature write about their own fantasy land.)
Henry and June (a main character tries to write a pseudo-biography)
Henry Fool (a witty roguish, but talent-less novelist)
Her Alibi (1989, A writer of BAD detective novels is in full writers' block)
His Girl Friday (newspaper editor and reporter)
Hit and Runway (screenwriters)
Hoax, The (2006, bogus biography writer)
Hours, The (includes a famous author dying of AIDS)
How to Kill Your Neighbor’s Dog (shy, chain-smoking, insomniac, LA playwright)
How to Murder Your Wife (cartoon writer)
Hunting Party, The (2007, journalists)
I Capture the Castle (novelist desperate to repeat the success of his first novel)
I Remember Mama (novelist who credits her mother for her success)
Il Postino (1994, poet)
Impromtu (1991, a party is thrown for famous musicians, artists, and writers of the day)
In a Lonely Place (A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect)
In Love and War (Ernest Hemingway is a reporter in Italy during World War I.)
In the Mouth of Madness (horror writer)
Infamous (about author Truman Capote)
Iris (2001, novelist battling Alzheimers)
Irish Writers (documentary of James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw.)
Isn't She Great (An unsuccessful over-the-top actress becomes a successful over-the-top authoress)
It Happened One Night (1934, reporter)
Jane Austen Book Club, The (6 people who get together once a month to discuss one of Jane Austens books)
Joe Gould's Secret (New Yorker staff writer, a poetry club)
John Steinbeck: An American Writer (documentary from Biography Channel)
Joshua Then and Now (alleged autobiography of Jewish writer Mordecai Richler)
Julia (1977, playwright)
Just Write (A Hollywood tour bus driver poses as a screenwriter)
Kafka (Soderbergh's film about Franz Kafka.)
Keats and His Nightingale: A Blind Date (film about Keats’ poetry and readers)
Kissing a Fool (a main character is a book editor)
La Dolce Vita (a young playboy journalist
Lake House, The (an exchange of love letters through time)
Left Behind: The Movie (a television journalist)
Left Behind II: Tribulation Force (a television journalist)
Left Behind: World at War (a television journalist)
Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles (glimpse into the mind of an enigmatic writer)
Libeled Lady (main character is the chief editor of a newspaper)
Life of Emile Zola, The (biopic of the famous French muckraking writer)
Little Women (Louisa May Alcott's autobiographical account of her life with her three sisters)
Lonely Lady, The (screenwriter)
Long Day's Journey Into Night (autobiographical account of Author Eugene O'Neill)
Lost Weekend, The (an unsuccessful, alcoholic writer)
Love and Death on Long Island (stuffy British author)
Luther (monk who translates the New Testament from Latin into German so everyone can read it.)
Man From Elysian Fields, The (A failed novelist)
Mark Twain Tonight (A one-man show in which Hal Holbrook becomes Twain.)
Martian Child, The (recently widowed science-fiction writer who adopts a 6-year-old boy)
Masters of Horror: Stuart Gordon: The Black Cat (Edgar Allen Poe suffers from writer's block.)
Meet John Doe (reporter)
Mindwalk (1990, poet)
Misery (kidnapped novelist)
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (fictionalized account of Japanese author Yukio Mishima)
Miss Potter (biography of author Beatrix Potter)
Mission (a young New Yorker dreams of writing the great American novel)
Morvern Callar (girlfriend passes off dead boyfriend’s unpublished novel as her own)
Mother (A neurotic, twice divorced sci-fi writer moves back in with his mom)
Moulin Rouge! (an impoverished poet and writer)
Mr. Holland’s Opus (musician and composer)
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (the inimitable poet and essayist Dorothy Parker)
Mule Skinner Blues (documentary of quirky artists)
Muse, The (A comedy about a neurotic screenwriter and his modern-day muse.)
Music and Lyrics (songwriting)
My Dear Secretary (bestselling novelist hires aspiring novelist as his secretary)
My Favorite Year (junior writer on a top rated variety/comedy show in the 50’s)
My House in Umbria (romance novelist)
My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (a brilliant painter, poet and author)
Mystery of Rampo, The (a writer whose latest work is censored by the government)
Naked Jane (typist who writes a novel in her spare time)
Naked Lunch (writer)
Necronomicon (H.P. Lovecraft anthology is divided into four segments.)
Never Been Kissed (journalist)
Neverwas (children’s book author)
Night and the Moment, The (A philandering writer)
Nora (author James Joyce and his wife)
Number 23, The (becomes obsessed with a novel that he believes was written about him.)
One True Thing (a character is a writer with an unfinished novel, even after he’s spent the advance.)
Orange County (surfer kid who dreams of being a writer and going to Stanford)
Out of Order (screenwriter who aspires to make art, but makes his living writing popcorn movies)
Overnight (2003, young screenwriter gets a dream movie deal directing his own script.)
Pandaemonium (poets)
Paper, The (2007, Documentary on the pressures of modern journalism)
Paper, The (1994, film about a New York City tabloid)
Paperback Hero (1999, a a handsome roadtrain driver who becomes a best-selling romance novelist)
Paperback Romance (Australian romance novelist)
Parallax View, The (reporter)
Paris When It Sizzles (screenwriter)
Pelican Brief, The (investigative journalist)
Perfect Stranger (2007, A journalist goes under cover to ferret out her best friend's killer.)
Permanent Midnight (comedy writer with a heroin habit.)
Philadelphia Story, The (a tabloid reporter)
Pitch (2006, screenwriters)
Pitch (1997, Two young writers try to pitch their script to the big and famous.
Platinum Blonde (1931, a hard-nosed newspaper reporter)
Player, The (A studio executive is being blackmailed by a writer whose script he rejected)
Pola X (a young man of privilege, whose anonymously-published novel is a hit)
Power Play (2002, journalist)
Prick Up Your Ears (the spectacular life and violent death of British playwright Joe Orton)
Prize, The (1963, Nobel prize in literature)
Producers, The (1968 and 2005, films about Broadway flops)
Proprietor, The (An expatriated French novelist returns to Paris)
Prozac Nation (a teenager accepted into Harvard with a scholarship in journalism.)
Pulp (1972, A seedy writer of sleazy pulp novels)
Purple Violets (writer struggles with the pressure of becoming the next important American writer.)
Quiet American, The (1958 and 2002, reporter)
Quills (The infamous writer, The Marquis de Sade of 18th Century France)
Reds (A radical American journalist)
Regeneration (1997, poets)
Resurrecting the Champ (Up-and-coming sports reporter rescues a homeless man.)
Roman Holiday (reporter)
Romancing the Stone (romance novelist)
Running with Scissors (Memoir of a writer)
Runoilija ja muusa (Semi-fictitious biopic of Finnish poet Eino Leino)
Sade (The infamous writer, Marquis de Sade)
Salem's Lot (Writer Ben Mears's childhood home of Jerusalem's Lot is terrorized by vampires.)
Saint-Ex (Poetic biography of author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.)
Salvador (1986, A journalist, down on his luck)
Sea That Thinks, The (German film “Zee die denkt, De” – screenwriter)
Secret Window (A successful writer is accused for plagiarism by a strange man.)
Shadowlands (world-renowned writer, C.S. Lewis meets his poet wife)
Shadows in the Sun (An aspiring young writer tracks a literary titan suffering from writers block.)
Shakespeare in Love (A young Shakespeare)
Shattered Glass (The true story of a young journalist who fell from grace fabricating his stories.)
She Devil (romance novelist)
Shining, The (aspiring novelist with writer’s block)
Shipping News, The (reporter)
Sid Caesar Collection, The: Inside the Writer’s Room (comedy writer)
Sideways (a failed writer living a meager existence)
Singing Detective, The (an ill writer hallucinates musical numbers and paranoid plots.)
Skin Deep (1989, a womanizing, drunken, alcoholic writer)
Sleepless in Seattle (Meg Ryan's character is a reporter.)
Sleuth (1972, successful writer of detective stories)
Sleuth (2007, an aging writer matches wits with a struggling actor)
Sliver (a book editor and an author of thriller novels)
Snows of Kilimanjaro, The (novelist)
Something's Gotta Give (a character is a playwright)
Sophie's Choice (the movie's narrator, a young American writer)
Squid and the Whale, The (two selfish, arrogant writers divorce)
Stand By Me (the narrator is a writer)
Starting Out in the Evening (a once great novelist and now-retired literary professor.)
Stone Reader (documentary where the director director traces "one-book" authors)
Stranger Than Fiction (2006, IRS agent hear an author inside his head narrating his life.)
Stranger Than Fiction (2005, famous writer father-unknown writer son)
Stranger Than Fiction (2000, best-selling author)
Street Smart (A New York journalist)
Sunset Boulevard (1950, A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star)
Superman (infamous reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane)
Swann (poet)
Sweet Liberty (writer of a scholarly book on the revolutionary war and sells the film rights.)
Sweet Smell of Success (world-famed columnist whose gossip is gospel to sixty million readers)
Swimming Pool (2003, British mystery author visits her publisher’s home in the south of France.)
Sylvia (2003, Story of the relationship between the poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.)
Sylvia (1965, Sylvia West is a young poetess engaged to an eccentric millionaire.)
Teacher’s Pet (1958, hardboiled city editor of a newspaper)
Technical Writer, The (an agoraphobic technical writer)
The Way We Were (main character publishes a small book and wants to write a screenplay.)
Theodora Goes Wild (Small-town prudes are up in arms over 'The Sinner,' a sexy best-seller.)
Third Man, The (An out of work pulp fiction novelist)
Throw Momma From the Train (A writing professor with a literary grudge against his ex-wife)
Time Changer (writer goes over 100 years into the future, offering a glimpse of where his writing will lead.)
Time Regained (dying French author, Marcel Proust, floats through a world of flashbacks and fantasies.)
Tom & Viv (poet)
Total Eclipse (1995, French poet)
Tune in Tomorrow (local radio station that hires a new scriptwriter known for great drama)
Under the Tuscan Sun (a just-divorced writer buys a villa in Tuscany on a whim)
Water's Edge (2003, novelist)
Welcome to Sarajevo (an adrenaline-loving bunch of reporters)
What Happened to Kerouac (a must-see for any fan of Jack Kerouac)
Where Sleeping Dogs Lie (A murder mystery writer)
Whisper of the Heart (Young girl who enjoys writing makes a discovery about the books she reads.).
Whole Wide World, The (true story of eccentric author of 'Conan the Barbarian')
Wild in the Country (A troubled young man discovers that he has a knack for writing.)
Wilde (The story of Oscar Wilde)
William Gibson: No Maps For These Territories (author expounding on a raft of subjects)
William S. Burroughs: Commissioner of Sewers (An hour-long interview with the author)
Winter Passing (reclusive novelist)
Wonder Boys (a professor/writer living in Pittsburgh who is struggling with writer's block.)
Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, The (The story of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm)
World According to Garp, The (an oddball writer who grapples with the cruel world)
Writer's Block (1996, Two inept screenwriters battling their own Hollywood blockbuster.)
Writer’s Block (2003, an aspiring screenwriter assigned his first project - but only 3 days to complete it.)
Writer’s Block (2007, A man is forced to write a drama on a one day deadline.)
Xiang ji mao yi yang fei (an unknown young poet)
Year of Living Dangerously, The (a journalist on his first job)
Youngblood Hawke (truck driver from KY who goes to NYC to become a hot-shot writer)
You’ve Got Mail (about bookstore owners, but I had to include it!)
Zodiac (reporters)
Great Writers (series):
- Alberto Moravia
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
- Anthony Burgess
- Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
- Isaac Bashevis Singer
- Jack London
- John Cocteau
- John Steinbeck
- Joseph Conrad
- Roald Dahl
- Salman Rushdie
- Tennessee Williams
- Truman Capote
Great Women Writers (series):
- Bronte Sisters, The
- Emily Dickinson
- Jane Austen
Famous Authors (series):
- Bronte Sisters, The
- Charles Dickens
- Jane Austen
- Earnest Hemmingway
- Edgar Allan Poe
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
- George Orwell
- John Steinbeck
- Mark Twain
- William Blake
- William Faulkner
- William Shakespeare