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Literary Darlings (my alternate list title). Movies/Shows with depictions of the greats and not-so-greats from the world of literature. Sometimes in straightforward biographical form, sometimes a bit more fictionalized. All-Time. Alphabetically.
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- DirectorSidney FranklinStarsNorma ShearerFredric MarchCharles LaughtonElizabeth Barrett's tyrannical father has forbidden any of his family to marry. Nevertheless, Elizabeth falls in love with the poet Robert Browning.Norma Shearer - Elizabeth Barrett, Fredric March - Robert Browning
- DirectorSidney FranklinStarsJennifer JonesJohn GielgudBill TraversElizabeth Barrett's tyrannical father has forbidden any of his family to marry. Nevertheless, Elizabeth falls in love with the poet Robert Browning.Jennifer Jones - Elizabeth Barrett, Bill Travers - Robert Browning
- DirectorMichael DarlowStarsJane LapotaireJoss AcklandJeremy BrettJane Lapotaire and Joss Ackland star in this adaptation of Rudolph Besier's play. Elizabeth Barrett is kept a virtual prisoner by her father. Then the poet Robert Browning bursts into her life.Jane Lapotaire - Elizabeth Moulton-Barrett, Jeremy Brett - Robert Browning
- DirectorJulian JarroldStarsAnne HathawayJames McAvoyJulie WaltersA biographical portrait of a pre-fame Jane Austen and her romance with a young Irishman.Anne Hathaway - Jane Austen
- DirectorHenry KingStarsGregory PeckDeborah KerrEddie AlbertToward the end of his life, F. Scott Fitzgerald is writing for Hollywood studios to be able to afford the cost of an asylum for his wife. He is also struggling against alcoholism. Into his life comes the famous gossip columnist.Gregory Peck - F. Scott Fitzgerald, Deborah Kerr - Sheila Graham
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsBoris KarloffElsa LanchesterColin CliveMary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Baron Henry Frankenstein, goaded by an even madder scientist, builds his monster a mate.Elsa Lanchester - Mary Wollstoncraft Shelly, Gavin Gordon - Lord Byron, Douglas Walton - Percy Bysshe Shelley
- DirectorJane CampionStarsAbbie CornishBen WhishawPaul SchneiderThe three-year romance between 19th-century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne near the end of his life.Ben Whishaw - John Keats
- StarsAlfred BurkeVickery TurnerAnn PenfoldDramatized biography of the Brontë sisters Charlotte, Anne and Emily.Vickery Turner - Charlotte Bronte, Ann Penfold - Anne Bronte, Rosemary McHale - Emily Bronte
- DirectorJulian FarinoStarsStephen Campbell MooreOliver MilburnMichael ElwynFollowing the success of his poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", Byron becomes the toast of London.Johnny Lee Miller - Lord Byron
- DirectorBennett MillerStarsPhilip Seymour HoffmanClifton Collins Jr.Catherine KeenerIn 1959, Truman Capote learns of the murder of a Kansas family and decides to write a book about the case. While researching for his novel In Cold Blood, Capote forms a relationship with one of the killers, Perry Smith, who is on death row.Philip Seymour Hoffman - Truman Capote, Catherine Keener - Nelle Harper Lee
- DirectorChristopher HamptonStarsEmma ThompsonJonathan PryceSteven WaddingtonThe platonic relationship between artist Dora Carrington (Dame Emma Thompson) and writer Lytton Strachey (Jonathan Pryce) in the early twentieth century.Jonathan Pryce - Lytton Strachey
- DirectorKathy BatesStarsSam ShepardJudy DavisBebe NeuwirthBiographical look at the bombastic love affair that writers Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman shared in 1940 and 50's Hollywood. Refusing to marry, but deeply in love, the two engaged in many affairs and battled the bottle. Dashiell served in both World wars, but in the 1950's, he was branded a Communist and cast into prison during the McCarthy witch hunts. Hellman likewise was branded a Communist, but was kept out of prison. Neither were able to work, requiring Lillian to take a job as a sales-woman in a boutique while Dashiell suffered from tuberculosis and eventually lung cancer. Bebe Neuwirth also appears as socialite-writer Dorothy Parker.Sam Shepard - Dashiell Hammett, Judy Davis - Lillian Hellman, Bebe Neuwirth - Dorothy Parker, Mark Zimmerman - Walter Winchell
- DirectorCurtis BernhardtStarsOlivia de HavillandIda LupinoPaul HenreidGenius authors Emily and Charlotte Brontë fall in love with their curate as they seek to get their work published.Ida Lupino - Emily Bronte, Olivia de Havilland - Charlotte Bronte, Nancy Coleman - Anne Bronte
- DirectorJulian SchnabelStarsMathieu AmalricEmmanuelle SeignerMarie-Josée CrozeThe true story of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffers a stroke and has to live with an almost totally paralyzed body; only his left eye isn't paralyzed.Mathieu Amalric - Jean-Do (Jean-Dominique Bauby)
- DirectorGavin MillarStarsCoral BrowneIan HolmPeter GallagherIan Holm is children's author Lewis Carroll in this poignant fantasy-drama set in 1930s New York and populated by the fabulous special effects creatures of Muppet master Jim Henson.Reverend Charles L. Dodgson/Lewis Carroll
- DirectorBarbara Willis SweeteStarsDiane D'AquilaBrent CarverPeter HuttPeter Hutt - Will Shakespeare
- DirectorHenry BromellStarsJeremy IronsNeve CampbellSissy SpacekRenowned writer F. Scott Fitzgerald is living the last months of his life with his youthful secretary, confidant and protege who later wrote a memoir of their time together.Jeremy Irons - F. Scott Fitzgerald
- DirectorMarc ForsterStarsJohnny DeppKate WinsletJulie ChristieThe story of Sir J.M. Barrie's friendship with a family who inspired him to create Peter Pan.Johnny Depp - J.M. Barrie
- DirectorJames MangoldStarsWinona RyderAngelina JolieClea DuVallA directionless teenager, Susanna, is rushed to Claymoore, a mental institution, after a supposed suicide attempt. There, she befriends a group of troubled women who deeply influence her life.Winona Ryder - Susanne Kaysen
- DirectorKelly AsburyStarsJames McAvoyEmily BluntMaggie SmithSeparated by a garden fence and a feud, are blue gnomes on one side and red gnomes on the other. This doesn't stop blue Gnomeo and red Juliet from falling in love with each other. Do they have a future together?Patrick Stewart - Bill Shakespeare
- DirectorKen RussellStarsGabriel ByrneJulian SandsNatasha RichardsonThe Shelleys visit Lord Byron and compete to write a horror story.Gabriel Byrne - Byron, Julian Sands - Shelly, Natasha Richardson - Mary Shelley
- DirectorJack O'BrienStarsEdward AsnerRichard ChamberlainBob DishyA writer (made to resemble Russian playwright Anton Chekhov) narrates a collection of his stories, all of which are written in the style of Chekhov.Richard Chamberlain - Anton Chekhov
- StarsStacy KeachJosephine ChaplinMarisa BerensonOf all the memorable characters created by Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning author Ernest Hemingway, none was more complicated, more fascinating, or more charismatic than Hemingway himself. Adored by women and the quintessential "man's man," he was husband, father, lover, war correspondent, brawler, adventurer, and a sportsman. Set against the turbulent history of the times, Hemingway reveals his tender and stormy relationships with his four wives, Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gellhorn, and Mary Welsh, each of whom had significant impact on his work.Stacey Keach - Ernest Hemingway
- DirectorAndy GarciaStarsAndy GarciaWriter Ernest Hemingway befriends boat captain, Gregorio Fuentes, who inspires him to pen the famous tale "The Old Man and the Sea."Anthony Hopkins - Ernest Hemingway
- DirectorPhilip KaufmanStarsNicole KidmanClive OwenDavid StrathairnA drama centered on the romance between Ernest Hemingway and World War II correspondent Martha Gellhorn, Hemingway's inspiration for For Whom the Bell Tolls, and the only woman who ever asked for a divorce from the writer.Clive Owen - Ernest Hemingway, David Strathairn - John Dos Passos
- DirectorMichael DeCarloStarsVincent WalshRobin DunneGordon PinsentA mini-series based on the true story of the friendship between Ernest Hemingway and Morley Callaghan in Toronto and Paris between 1923 and 1929.Vincent Walsh - Ernest Hemingway, Ruth Madoc-Jones - Alice B. Toklas
- DirectorSergio DowStarsAlbert FinneyPaul GuilfoyleFele MartínezDuring the Kenyan struggle for independence from the British in the late 1950s, a scientific safari led by Ernest Hemingway undertakes the ascent of Mount Kenya. Hemingway has been warned by Kikuyu tribe members not to violate the sacred laws of Mwene-Nyaga, the mountain's god, by harming the elephants which ascend its peaks because it will lead to self-destruction, as any aggression against against nature is an act of suicide. The expeditions consists of the author, Alex Smith, British police commissioner, Renata, the photographer and Hemingway's lover, Antonio, Hemingway's godson, a Spanish biologist and frustrated bullfighter, Kamau, a Kikuyu tribe member who secretly fights for Kenya's independence with the Mau-Mau rebels. The expedition's progress is impeded as political and personal forces collide and Hemingway comes face-to-face with his final destiny in facing the decision to shoot the Sacred Mammoth who roams the highest peaks of Mount Kenya.Albert Finney - Ernest Hemingway
- DirectorStephen DaldryStarsMeryl StreepNicole KidmanJulianne MooreThe story of how the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" affects three generations of women, all of whom, in one way or another, have had to deal with suicide in their lives.Nicole Kidman - Virginia Woolf
- DirectorDouglas McGrathStarsToby JonesDaniel CraigSandra BullockWhile researching his novel "In Cold Blood", Truman Capote develops a close relationship with convicted murderers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith.Toby Jones - Truman Capote, Sandra Bullock- Nelle Harper Lee, Peter Bogdanovich - Bennet Cerf, Michael Panes - Gore Vidal
- DirectorRichard EyreStarsJudi DenchJim BroadbentKate WinsletTrue story of the lifelong romance between novelist Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, from their student days through her battle with Alzheimer's disease.Kate Winslet - Young Iris Murdoch, Judi Dench - Iris Murdoch
- DirectorFred ZinnemannStarsJane FondaVanessa RedgraveJason RobardsAt the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.Jane Fonda - Lillian (Hellman), Jason Robards - (Dashiell) Hammett
- DirectorMichael HoffmanStarsHelen MirrenJames McAvoyChristopher PlummerA historical drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy's (Christopher Plummer's) struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things.Christopher Plummer - Tolstoy
- DirectorJosé María SánchezStarsVictor GarberRom AndersonKaren BlackTraces the legendary author's life, from the images and memories of his early boyhood, to his tragic suicide at 62. We first meet Hemingway as a young boy dominated by the virile figure of his father, a doctor devoted to hunting and fishing. Hemingway next appears as an 18-year-old ambulance driver during World War I who is wounded on the frontline of Piave. In the hospital, he meets and falls in love with a young Red Cross nurse who later becomes the model for his heroine in " A Farewell to Arms", a fictionalizes account of his experience as a young soldier coming to grips with the horrors of war. Hemingway becomes a foreign correspondent and travels to France, Italy, and Spain, but soon abandons his journalistic career and settles in Paris to write novels and short stories. Interspersed throughout the story are Hemingway's encounters with an enigmatic woman of indeterminate age who becomes his closest confidant. She is the personification of death's shadow and follows him throughout his life. In the end, she finds him in a clinic as a disillusioned old man wasted by anxiety and depression. Shortly after, Ernest Hemingway takes his life with a shotgun.Victor Garber - Ernest Hemingway
- StarsTim CurryPaul FreemanJohn NormingtonBiography of William Shakespeare.Tim Curry - William Shakespeare
- DirectorHarry LachmanStarsLinda DarnellShepperd StrudwickVirginia GilmoreEdgar Allan Poe led an unhappy childhood, broken only by the unceasing devotion of his foster mother, Mrs. Frances Allan, whose loving ministrations gave him courage to carry out his desire to write. His first love was Elmira Royster, and though she married another while he was at the University of Virginia, he could never purge his thoughts of her and, under the influence of her spell, he poured out the deepest passions of his heart. After a discouraging period during which he was disowned by his foster father and lost his appointment to West Point, he found the love that tamed his restless heart with Virginia Clemm. After he and Virginia married, Poe did his greatest creative work, writing for the Southern Literary Messenger and Graham's Magazine.Shepperd Strudwick - Edgar Allan Poe, Skippy Wanders, Poe, age 3, Freddie Mercer - Poe age 12
- DirectorVincente MinnelliStarsJennifer JonesJames MasonVan HeflinA provincial doctor's wife's romantic illusions about life and social status lead her to betray her naive husband, take on lovers, and run up ruinous debts.James Mason - Gustave Flaubert
- DirectorPeter BrookStarsPatrick MageeClifford RoseGlenda JacksonIn an insane asylum, Marquis de Sade directs Jean Paul Marat's last days through a theater play. The actors are the patients.Patrick Magee - Marquis de Sade, Ian Richardson - Jean Paul Marat
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsOwen WilsonRachel McAdamsKathy BatesWhile on a trip to Paris with his fiancée's family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s every day at midnight.Corey Stoll - Ernest Hemingway, Tom Hiddleston - F. Scott Fitzgerald, Therese Bourour-Rubinsztein - Alice B. Toklas, Kathy Bates - Gertrude Stein, Adrian de Van - Luis Bunuel, David Lowe - T.S. Eliot
- DirectorChris NoonanStarsRenée ZellwegerEwan McGregorEmily WatsonThe story of Beatrix Potter, the author of the beloved and best-selling children's book, "The Tale of Peter Rabbit", and her struggle for love, happiness, and success.Renee Zellweger - Beatrix Potter
- DirectorAlan RudolphStarsKeith CarradineLinda FiorentinoWallace ShawnA struggling artist is hired to forge paintings, causing him to cross paths with his ex-wife and her powerful new husband.Kevin J. O'Connor - Ernest Hemingway, Elsa Raven - Gertrude Stein, Ali Giron - Alice B. Toklas
- DirectorJim SheridanStarsDaniel Day-LewisBrenda FrickerAlison WhelanChristy Brown, born with cerebral palsy, learns to paint and write with his only controllable limb - his left foot.Daniel Day-Lewis - Christy Brown
- DirectorArchie BordersStarsEsteban PowellMeghan Faye GallagherJustin ShiltonCarly, Morgan, and Chuck, three college graduates, launch "Gonzo," a crazy, alternative newspaper featuring music, sex, and a bizarre comic-strip called "Clodhopper." And when Carly, Chuck, and Morgan enter into an unexpected love triangle, the jealousies and betrayals threaten to tear their business, and friendship, apart. Forever.Will Crawford - Hunter S. Thompson
- DirectorAlan RudolphStarsJennifer Jason LeighCampbell ScottMatthew BroderickDorothy Parker remembers the heyday of the Algonquin Round Table, a circle of friends whose barbed wit, like hers, was fueled by alcohol and flirted with despair.Jennifer Jason Leigh - Dorothy Parker, Campbell Scott - Robert Benchley, Matthew Broderick - Charles MacArthur, Sam Robards - Harold Ross, Lili Taylor - Edna Ferber, Nick Cassavetes - Robert Sherwood, David Thornton - George S. Kaufman, Tom McGowan - Alexander Woollcott, David Gow - Donald Ogden Stewart, Malcolm Gets - F. Scott Fitzgerald
- DirectorPhilip KaufmanStarsGeoffrey RushKate WinsletJoaquin PhoenixIn a Napoleonic era insane asylum, an inmate, the irrepressible Marquis De Sade, fights a battle of wills against a tyrannically prudish doctor.Geoffrey Rush - The Marquis de Sade
- DirectorJames McTeigueStarsJohn CusackAlice EveLuke EvansWhen a madman begins committing horrific murders inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's works, a young Baltimore detective joins forces with Poe to stop him from making his stories a reality.John Cusack - Edgar Allan Poe
- DirectorWarren BeattyStarsWarren BeattyDiane KeatonEdward HerrmannA radical American journalist becomes involved with the Communist revolution in Russia, and hopes to bring its spirit and idealism to the United States.Jack Nicholson - Eugene O'Neill
- DirectorPatrick GarlandStarsEileen AtkinsA one-woman show based on the writings of Virginia Woolf, the tragic writer who committed suicide in 1941.Eileen Atkins - Virginia Woolf
- DirectorBen LewinStarsJohn HawkesHelen HuntWilliam H. MacyA man in an iron lung who wishes to lose his virginity contacts a professional sex surrogate with the help of his therapist and priest.John Hawkes - Mark O'Brien
- DirectorRichard AttenboroughStarsAnthony HopkinsDebra WingerJulian FellowesC.S. Lewis, a world-renowned Christian theologian, writer and professor, leads a passionless life until he meets spirited poet Joy Gresham from the U.S.Anthony Hopkins - Jack Lewis/C.S. Lewis
- DirectorJohn MaddenStarsGwyneth PaltrowJoseph FiennesGeoffrey RushThe world's greatest ever playwright, William Shakespeare, is young, out of ideas and short of cash, but meets his ideal woman and is inspired to write one of his most famous plays.Joseph Fiennes - Will Shakespeare, Rupert Everett - Christopher Marlowe
- DirectorSean SandlerStarsChad DanfordAlexis CroucherMarc SebastianH. Clark Kee - Hunter S. Thompson
- DirectorChristine JeffsStarsGwyneth PaltrowDaniel CraigLucy DavenportStory of the relationship between poets Edward James "Ted" Hughes and Sylvia Plath.Gwyneth Paltrow - Sylvia Plath, Daniel Craig - Ted Hughes
- DirectorMichael Caton-JonesStarsRobert De NiroLeonardo DiCaprioEllen BarkinThe story about the relationship between a rebellious 1950s teenager and his abusive stepfather, based on the memoirs of writer and literature Professor Tobias Wolff.Leonard DiCaprio - Tobias "Toby" Wolff
- DirectorBrian GilbertStarsWillem DafoeMiranda RichardsonRosemary HarrisIn 1915, Tom and Viv elope, but her gynecological and emotional problems disrupt their honeymoon. Her father is angry because Tom's poetry doesn't bring in enough to live, but her mother is happy Viv has found a tender and discreet husband.Willem Dafoe - T.S. Elliot, Nicholas Grace - Bertrand Russell, Joanna McCallum - Virginia Woolf
- DirectorArt LinsonStarsPeter BoyleBill MurrayBruno KirbySemi-biographical film based on the experiences of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.Hunter S. Thompson - Bill Murray