A Bumper Crop of Biopics

Don't look now, but we've got a bunch of true life stories and biopics headed our way. I'm not sure what set this off - maybe Spielberg's "Lincoln" clearing $180 million at the domestic box office, "Argo" winning the Best Picture Oscar, or the surprise success of "42"? - but the latter part of 2013 is about to get swamped with movies that can begin with the epigraph, "Based on a true story."

August brings the Steve Jobs biopic "Jobs" with Ashton Kutcher and Lee Daniels' "The Butler" with Forrest Whitaker. September offers Ron Howard's "Rush," about Formula One racer James Hunt, and the Princess Diana biopic "Diana" with Naomi Watts. In October, we're getting "Captain Phillips," starring Tom Hanks as the captain of a ship hijacked by Somali pirates, and Wikileaks tell-all "The Fifth Estate," starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange. Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street," featuring Leonardo DiCaprio as notorious stock broker Jordan Belfort, arrives in November, a few short weeks before "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" with Idris Elba makes its debut.

Then the floodgates open in December as the Oscar races kicks into gear. "Dallas Buyers Club" will have Matthew McConaughey as early AIDS patient Ron Woodroof. David O. Russell's ABSCAM movie finally has a title, "American Hustle," and will dramatize the famous sting operation. "Saving Mr. Banks" has Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers, clashing over the making of "Mary Poppins." George Clooney's "Monuments Men" is a WWII caper film based on real events. Peter Berg's "Lone Survivor" follows a more recent military operation gone wrong, also based on real events. Two of the most anticipated titles are "Grace of Monaco" with Nicole Kidman, and "12 Years a Slave," with Chiwetel Ejiofor. Not scheduled yet, but expected to be on the schedule soon are Bennett Miller's "Foxcatcher" with Steve Carrell, "Lovelace," with Amanda Seyfried, and "The Railway Man" with Colin Firth. And of course, there's the Coen brothers' fictional biopic "Inside Llewyn Davis," about the titular singer-songwriter played by Oscar Isaac.

And then there's all the projects in development and in the early stages of production. Did you hear the rumors about who's getting cast in the proposed HiIlary Clinton biopic? Or who's directing the new Houdini movie? George Jones and Barabara Streisand were recently announced to be getting their lives retold on film, though the entertainer we really want to see brought to the big screen is Freddie Mercury. Wasn't Sacha Baron Cohen supposed to be attached to his movie? Other notable figures expected to be the subject of upcoming films include Martin Luther King Jr., Alan Turing, Stephen Hawking, Marvin Gaye, Whitey Bulger, Elton John, Paul Robeson, Cantinflas, Margaret Keane, A.A. Milne, Hank Williams, John Gotti, Janis Joplin, Lorraine Hansberry, Nina Simone, Dr. Seuss, the Beach Boys, Lance Armstrong, Johnny Carson, Pelé, and those 33 Chilean miners Hollywood hasn't forgotten about.

Biopics and true life stories are standard movie fare, of course. They're usually not very high profile until they start popping up around awards season, can be counted on to have a certain built-in audience, and they rarely cost very much. So why are we getting so many of them this year? The theories vary. Some see it as another sign that Hollywood is short on ideas and has resorted to cashing in on the image of beloved celebrities. The recent bump in made-for-TV movies about drama-magnets Anna Nicole Smith, Elizabeth Taylor, and the Kennedys seem to fit there. Or maybe it's the recent shift we've seen in high profile biopics like "Lincoln" and "The King's Speech," away from the cradle-to-grave approach, and toward highlighting specific events or periods in their subjects' live. This allows for more creative freedom, and may have gotten more filmmakers interested in the genre.

My own pet theory is that this could be early signs of push back against the blockbuster business model. Midrange films are staging a minor comeback after getting squeezed out of studio slates, especially as it's been proven with titles like "Lincoln" that they can make good money. Also, cable and the Internet are providing new potential platforms for them. Steven Soderberg's Liberace biopic "Behind the Candelabra" brought in record ratings, which appears to have led to a healthy uptick in greenlights for some long-simmering projects.

Personally, I'm glad to see this happening. I like a good biopic, and real life is a great source of material for interesting stories. Sure, the Princess Diana movie looks awfully slight, and I'm sure they're going to turn "Captain Phillips" into a Hollywood-style action movie, but they provide a nice break from all the superheroes and revenge fantasies and cartoons that seem to have taken over the rest of the schedule. And if nothing else, they're usually movies made for grown-ups, which I fully support on principle.
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