Fact-based focus: July 2026
This month’s round-up of fact-based film and TV includes a rebellion, a road trip, a rescue – and the birth of a republic...
Welcome to July’s look at what’s happening in the world of fact-based film and TV.
Coming soon
Due for release in September, English historical war drama The Uprising (2026) stars Andrew Garfield as a farmer who leads a rebellion against King Richard II amid the devastation of the Black Death. Directed by Paul Greengrass, the film is based on events of the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381.
Take a look at the trailer:
Nimrods (2025) tells of a high school punk rock band that hits the road, mistakenly thinking they’re opening for Green Day. This coming-of-age comedy, inspired by the early years of the actual Green Day, is due out in August.
Take a look at the trailer:
Recent releases
Now streaming on Netflix, German social issues drama 23,000 Lives (2026) is inspired by the true story of a group of young people, whose rescue of refugees in distress in the Mediterranean hit some legal obstacles.
Take a look at the trailer:
News
Glenn Powell is set to star as celebrated New York Yankees baseball player Lou Gehrig, who died in 1941 from ALS. Richard Linklater is lined up to direct the untitled project. Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Netflix has acquired Ink (2026), which tells of the founding of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Directed by Danny Boyle, the film will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September. Source: Variety
Despite some lukewarm reviews, Michael (2026) has become the highest grossing biopic to date, overtaking Oppenheimer (2023). Box office takings recently passed $1bn. Sources: BBC News / Forbes
A Rolling Stones biopic could be on the horizon, after Sir Mick Jagger said the idea “interests” him – but he gave no hint which period of the band’s 64-year history a film would focus on. Jagger previously produced the James Brown bio Get On Up (2014). Source: Deadline
Two-time Palme d’Or winner Bille August is set to direct a biopic of Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani, who died in 2025. Armani: The King of Fashion is unauthorised, with no endorsement from – or involvement of – Armani’s family. Source: The Hollywood Reporter
The Black List now integrates Simon & Schuster‘s backlist of 6,000 fiction and non-fiction titles. While access to the database is limited to film and TV pros, it does highlight how projects based on existing material (or ‘IP’) are in demand. Source: Deadline
Maria (2024) and Jackie (2016) director Pablo Larraín will helm Once for Netflix. It will feature 11 stories that unfold following Chile’s 1973 coup d’état. Source: Variety
A biopic of Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum is in the works. El Sett (‘the lady’) will trace Kulthum’s journey from her family’s Nile Delta village to stardom, as the leading voice of the Arab world. Source: Deadline
Stephen Poliakoff will write The Order, a historical thriller set around the time of The Great Siege of Malta in 1565. The eight-part series is based on Peter Portelli’s novel. Source: Variety
What have I been watching?
Streaming on HBO Max, John Adams (2008) sheds light on the role of the Founding Father and 2nd president of the United States in the country’s birth.
Based on David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, the seven episodes trace Adams from respected Boston lawyer and farmer to the highest office in the nascent land.
A Massachusetts native, Adams was witness to violent events such as the 1770 Boston Massacre and 1773 Boston Tea Party, as protestors angered by the imposition of taxes by Great Britain but denied representation in Westminster clashed with occupying British troops.
However, early in the first episode, Adams is called in to (successfully) defend British soldiers accused of fatally firing on a crowd of protestors. Despite his anguish at the loss of life, Adams steps up to do his duty. This sets him up as a man of character who strives to do what’s right, despite the sacrifices this entails.
When the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in the 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord, Adams becomes a key part of the movement for independence from the British. He joined the Continental Congress in Philadelphia and was involved in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.
Later, we follow Adams to Europe, where the upright statesman clashes with the Parisian society crowd at King Louis XVI’s Palace of Versailles, as he attempts to secure the support of the French and Dutch.
On hearing of an American victory in the war, he returns to America to confront the political realities of setting the governing parameters of the new country. This becomes a battle between a strong central government vs. states’ rights.
Throughout, Adams’ dedication to the cause leads to professional frustrations and also to lengthy separation from his family, including devoted wife Abigail and eldest son John Quincy Adams (who would later become the 6th American president).
Given the scope of the story, it’s maybe not surprising that sections of the series feel somewhat episodic. But this is balanced by the strong cast and the attention to historical detail.
Paul Giamatti is excellent as Adams, humanising a rather stiff and irascible character. He’s more than matched by Laura Linney as Abigail Adams. Other highlights are the late Tom Wilkinson as the gruff, fun-loving Benjamin Franklin, who proves both an ally and obstacle to Adams.
Stephen Dillane is equally impressive as Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, a supporter of states’ rights, whose friendship with Federalist Adams becomes strained over their opposing visions for America. Fittingly, both men died on 4 July 1826: the 50th anniversary of American independence.
Elsewhere, David Morse is a towering George Washington, whose humble demeanour belies a powerful presence on the battlefield and in public office as the 1st US president.
John Adams was present through the first half-century of America’s existence, and this Emmy-winning series dramatizes the key events of those decades through the eyes of one of the lesser-celebrated Founding Fathers.
It was a journey that began with protests over the control of the colonies by an overseas power and led to the creation of a Republic that endures – as Franklyn warned, “if you can keep it”.
Take a look at a scene:
On The Fact-Based Screenplay’s Substack…
My next deep dive focusses on how memory is represented through B-story flashback structure to elevate a culture clash narrative into an emotionally resonant drama in Saving Mr Banks (2013).