Fact-based focus: June 2026
This month’s round-up of fact-based film and TV includes a whistleblowing sequel, a trip back to the 14th century with Dante – and World Cup football...
Welcome to June’s look at what’s happening in the world of fact-based film and TV.
Coming soon
Ahead of its 9 October release, the official teaser trailer for Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning (2026) has gone live. A follow up to The Social Network (2010), the later film focuses on a whistleblower going up against Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook.
The trailer has received a critical reception, with The Hollywood Reporter calling it “self-serious”, and online users making unfavourable comparisons with the earlier film, which is a hard act to follow.
For me, The Social Reckoning looks more interesting as a character evolution piece rather than a cautionary tale about the reach and influence of social media. Judge for yourself:
Directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, biographical drama Fatherland (2026) concerns the relationship between German writer and Nobel laureate Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika.
Set in 1949, the story is framed around a road trip across Germany, a country in ruins following the end of WWII. The film premiered at Cannes, with a cinema release expected later in the year.
Take a look at the trailer:
New releases
Tying in with the current World Cup, Netflix’s Mexico ‘86 (2026) is ‘inspired by’ Mexico’s real-life campaign to host the international football tournament.
Set against an authentic historical backdrop, the film satirises the behind-the-scenes political manoeuvrings as a low-level bureaucrat becomes determined to secure the event for his country.
Take a look at the trailer:
Also on Netflix, we have Julian Schnabel’s In the Hand of Dante (2026). Based on Nick Tosches’ 2022 novel, the story concerns efforts by the Mob to steal a handwritten manuscript of Dante Alighieri's poem, The Divine Comedy.
In parallel, we journey back to the 14th century, where Dante is struggling to write his best-known work – offering us another example of dropping a real-life figure into a fictional narrative.
Take a look at the trailer:
News
French drama Forsaken (2026), which tells of the real-life murder of teacher Samuel Paty, is expected to receive an international release, following its premiere at Cannes. Source: Variety
With Barcelona’s Sagrada Família recently completed after 144 years, a biopic of its architect, Antoni Gaudí, is planned. Known as “God's architect”, Gaudí is one of Spain’s most important cultural figures, with the planned film described as a “biography of his soul”. Source: Variety
The top-selling female country-pop artist, Shania Twain, is also in line for the biopic treatment. Details are scant, but it’s likely we’ll enjoy the highlights of Twain’s well-known back catalogue, which has seen her sell over 100 million albums. Source: Deadline
A film of Dic Penderyn is in the works. Penderyn was wrongfully hanged for his part in the Merthyr Riots of 1831, in which workers protested conditions and wages in the Welsh iron mining industry. The project has run into some financial troubles, but the filmmakers are committed to bringing Penderyn’s story to the screen (and securing him a posthumous pardon). Source: BBC News
Inspired by the life of Will Rogers, high school sports drama Will to Win concerns a young Chickasaw softball player whose imaginary conversations with the late vaudeville performer help her succeed against the odds. Source: Deadline
A biopic of Maria José of Savoy, the “May Queen”, is in the works. Maestà will dramatize the life of Maria José, who was Queen of Italy for just 27 days following World War II, during a tumultuous few weeks in the country’s history, which included a vote to abolish the monarchy. Source: Variety
On the web
Interesting comments on the research process from the maker of The Leader, which tells of the Heaven’s Gate cult that led to the mass suicide of 39 followers in 1997.
The film’s director Michael Gallagher grew up in the San Diego neighbourhood where the events unfolded, and he became determined to go beyond the “judgment and outlandish headlines” to “understand the humans” behind Heaven’s Gate.
It led to a decade of research, covering books, news articles and tapes recorded by the cult’s leaders, Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles. The process then involved “excavating the facts and finding the truth”.
The result is a fact-based, non-linear, documentary-style film that employs techniques like mixed media and recreating archival moments. It also draws out the cult members’ desire for “connection and belonging” – making the story universally relatable.
Following the recent release of D-Day film Pressure (2026), this featurette explores the important role weather and meteorology have played in history. It also highlights how history provides us with endless opportunities to craft rich screen stories:
When does true crime become exploitative? And what responsibility do filmmakers have to the cultures and communities they portray?
Inspired by the murder of Addison Verrill, William Friedkin’s New York-set gay crime thriller Cruising (1980) was ground-breaking but also derided by the community in which it was set.
Debuting at the Tribeca Festival, documentary Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders (2026) revisits the film’s complex legacy from the perspective of what Variety called “1970s LGBTQ liberation, persecution and panic”.
Martin Scorsese has caused a stir with his comments embracing AI in filmmaking. The director, who recently joined the board of AI firm Black Forest Labs as an adviser, spoke of the importance of being “open to how cinemas can ‘evolve’”. He pointed to his use of 3D in Hugo (2011) and de-aging technology in The Irishman (2019).
While Variety speculated whether the next Goodfellas (1990) – or The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) – could be made with AI, Scorsese was actually promoting the use of AI as a storyboarding tool. He demonstrated by using the tool to storyboard the famous Steadicam shot in Goodfellas where Henry takes Karen though the Copacabana nightclub.
AI has become a polarizing force, not least in the writing world, so it’s not surprising that Scorsese has drawn ire for daring to experiment with emerging tech to enhance how he practices his craft.
Just like the industrial revolution, the moving image, talkies, television, the internet, etc., any disrupting force has its visionaries and innovators, as well as its naysayers and bad actors.
My take? Those who care about their creative output will find ways to use AI to improve their own processes, while those who don’t care will use it as a sloppy shortcut to doing the work.
With his back catalogue and commitment to the art of authentic filmmaking (as demonstrated by the painstaking Gangs of New York (2002) production), I don’t think there’s any debate over which category Scorsese belongs in…
On The Fact-Based Screenplay’s Substack…
My next deep dive looks at mining out a strong screen narrative from dense source material, with analysis of Moneyball (2011).