David Fincher's Mank, now streaming on Netflix, chronicles the making of Hollywood classic Citizen Kane through the eyes of its alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz. If you enjoyed it, here are 5 other films and TV shows that are about the making of a film:
Tommy Wiseau's The Room remains one of the worst, if not one of the most quotable films ever made, full of awkward dialogue, poorly edited sex scenes and side plots that go nowhere. In this film, based on a 2013 non-fiction book, director James Franco pieces together Wiseau's first meeting and eventual friendship with actor Greg Sestero, which culminates in this flop being made.
German director F. W. Murnau's compulsion to make Nosferatu an authentic vampire film leads him to hire actor Max Schreck, who only agrees to be filmed at night and never takes off his makeup. Is Schreck method acting or is there more to him than meets the eye? This fictional documentary on the making of the film, directed by E. Elias Merhinge, tries to find out.
Streaming on: DisneyPlus Hotstar
The rivalry between Hollywood actresses Joan Crawford and Bette Davis is the stuff of legend. Ryan Murphy's eight-episode series, starring Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon, traces how the two got under each other's skin during the making of the 1962 horror classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, while also contextualizing it through the misogyny and ageism that actresses of their time faced.
Based on Stephen Rebello book, Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, this Sacha Gervasi film follows the director as he grapples with writer's block, insinuations that he's past his prime, the suspicion that his wife is cheating on him and exhaustion from overwork as he films his superlative 1960 psychological horror movie.
Streaming on: Netflix
Craig Brewer's hysterically funny biopic stars Eddie Murphy as stand-up comedian Rudy Roy Moore, who decides to craft a kung-fu-themed blaxploitation film centered around one of his onstage personas, Dolemite, described as "the baddest motherf****er who ever lived".