Fact-based focus: December 2025
This month’s round-up of fact-based film and TV includes a 19th century presidential assassination, a powerful exploration of evil – and a Neil Diamond tribute act...
Welcome to December’s mid-month look at what’s happening in the world of fact-based film and TV.
Recent releases
Nuremberg (2025) offers a stark exploration of evil through the eyes of a WWII psychiatrist who evaluated Nazi leaders ahead of the Nuremberg trials. It’s based on Jack El-Hai’s non-fiction book, The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Göring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII. The film was released on 4 November 2025. In the UK, it lands on Sky Cinema in January 2026.
Take a look at the trailer:
Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel of the same name, Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet (2025) focuses on the impact of the death of William Shakespeare’s 11-year-old son from the point-of-view of the Bard’s wife Agnes. Released in the US in November, the film is due in UK cinemas in early January.
Coming soon
Starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue (2025) charts the ups and down of a Milwaukee-based husband and wife Neil Diamond tribute act. Inspired by the real-life experiences of Mike and Claire Sardina, the feel-good film hits cinemas in December.
Take a look at the trailer:
Czech writer Franz Kafka gets the biopic treatment in Franz (2025). It takes the cradle-to-grave approach, described as a ‘kaleidoscopic mosaic’ – from the author’s birth in Prague in 1883 to his death in 1924 in post–World War I Vienna. Agnieszka Holland’s film, Poland’s Oscar entry, has done the rounds at film festivals and in selected European countries. A wider release is expected in early 2026.
News
A fourth season of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true crime anthology Monster (2022–) is in the works. While it will focus on axe murderer Lizzie Borden, Sarah Paulson is in talks to appear as serial killer Aileen Wuornos. This suggests the season is likely to explore the broader theme of female killers – just as the recent Ed Gein mini-series examined his influence on well-known fictional murderers. Source: Variety
Fact-based films and TV shows in the works include:
Santo Subito!: A Vatican-set thriller and ‘theological reckoning’ based on the true story of an American priest summoned to Rome in the aftermath of Pope John Paul II’s death to investigate his potential path to sainthood. Source: Variety
Thunder Road: This series will explore the rich history of NASCAR and stock car racing, which extends back to Prohibition, with a focus on the Whitlock family. It’s the first in a planned Great American Stories anthology. Source: Deadline
Blue Moon (2025), Nouvelle Vague (2025), Hamnet are among the fact-based nominees for the 2026 Golden Globes – the awards will be handed out on 11 January. Source: Golden Globes
On the web
Variety has published a compilation of screenwriters talking about the challenges of adapting real people’s lives for the screen. Films discussed include Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (2025), Roofman (2025), and The Chronology of Water (2025).
Following a low-key opening weekend for the Christy Martin biopic Christy (2025), CNN has looked at why boxing biographies often fail at the box office. The article suggests these movies have a “tough time connecting with audiences”. In short, for every Raging Bull (1980), there’s a Phantom Punch (2009).
The New Yorker has explored how “talk becomes the action” in Peter Hujar’s Day (2025). The dialogue-heavy movie is based on a transcript of a real interview the photographer conducted with Linda Rosenkrantz in which he recounted what he’d done the previous day.
Take a look at the trailer:
What have I been watching?
Netflix’s impressive mini-series Death by Lightning (2025) dramatizes the events around the 1881 assassination of US President James Garfield by Charles Guiteau.
Initially reluctant to run for the presidency, Garfield was in office for just 200 days before he was shot – later succumbing not to the bullet but to the negligent medical treatment he received.
The story unfolds in two strands, as the lives of Garfield (Michael Shannon) and Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen) become tragically intertwined.
Garfield’s story takes us inside the inner workings of the DC political machine, where the likes of James Blaine (Bradley Whitford) and Roscoe Conkling (Shea Whigham) are jostling for power. When – amid lacklustre efforts from his contemporaries – Garfield makes a stirring patriotic speech at the 1880 Republican National Convention, he finds himself on their presidential radar.
We also spend time with Guiteau – a chancer, ex-convict, and dreamer who worms his way into the political scene and latches on to Garfield, before turning on him. Dismissed as a harmless annoyance, he becomes increasingly desperate and unhinged.
As the upright Garfield, Shannon is suitably austere, coming across as a good man trying to rise above the political cesspool and do the right thing for his country. His scenes at home on his Illinois farm and with his wife Crete Garfield (Betty Gilpin) are especially affecting.
Meanwhile, Macfadyen has all kinds of fun as Guiteau, keeping things the right side of cartoon villain. The look on his face when his reality finally catches up to him is priceless.
The most pronounced character arc belongs to Chester A Arthur (Nick Offerman), a boorish, immature thug selected as Garfield’s running mate purely on the basis of his powerful position in New York. Arthur is later forced to rise to the occasion and prove the faith Garfield vests in him.
If there are negatives, it’s the occasional jarring lapse into the modern and the fact that we never really know what made Guiteau tick, beyond unnamed psychological problems. By the end of the four episodes, the overriding feeling is anger – not at the assassin, but at the incompetent doctor who treated Garfield.
Overall, this is a strong drama, which brings to life a curious but highly significant episode from US history.
Take a look at the trailer:
On The Fact-Based Screenplay website
5 Lesser-Used Techniques in Fact-Based Storytelling: Following my recent Substack post on 10 essential techniques for fact-based screenwriters, go even deeper with these advanced tools.
🎄Drop by on 26 December for my next deep dive – My Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018). Subscribe for free to get every post straight to your inbox.🎄