ComingSoon.net has chosen the best dramas that take place within the fast-paced world of journalism and is ready to send this slideshow to the presses. Check out our picks in the gallery below!
Back in Old Hollywood, newspaper pictures were comedies that made up a huge part of the market—1934’s It Happened One Night, 1940’s His Girl Friday, 1940’s The Philadelphia Story, all remain incredibly revered and much-lauded pictures from a bygone era. All these decades later, newspaper pictures endure in a much different capacity. Instead of comedy, they’ve transitioned to drama.
Today, especially in a time where true crime stories are so prevalent, newspaper dramas typically lean more toward based-on-a-true-story plots instead of coming up with new or fresh ideas. Still, it doesn’t matter—there are quite a few newspaper dramas worth talking about. We’ve compiled the five best ones.
Newsroom dramas
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Ace in the Hole (1951)
The earliest entry here, Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole tracks a frustrated ex-big city journalist banished to a small-town newspaper. He looks to exploit a story in order to revive his former glory, but not everything goes as planned. Simply put, it’s beyond brilliant.
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All the President's Men (1976)
Starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, 1976’s All the President’s Men follows the two Washington Post reporters responsible for helping to uncover one of the most notable political scandals in the history of the United States: Watergate. Even with other films about The Washington Post like 2017’s The Post, All the President’s Men remains an incredibly impressive story and a great newspaper drama.
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Broadcast News (1987)
Written and directed by Simpsons alum James L, Brooks, 1987’s Broadcast News stars William Hurt, Albert Brooks, and Holly Hunter in the story of two hotheaded TV reporters and their producer. The three go head-to-head(-to-head), remaining an unbeatable newspaper dramas over three decades later.
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Network (1976)
Not all newsroom dramas have to take place behind-the-scenes of a newspaper. Journalism can happen on TV, too. As evidenced by Broadcast News, 1976’s Network is a great newsroom drama that has nothing to do with a newspaper. Here, a TV network exploits a former anchor in order to turn a profit.
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Zodiac (2007)
In the running for David Fincher’s best movie, 2007’s Zodiac stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo as three key figures in the search for the identity of the Zodiac killer. Gyllenhaal is especially impressive here, but the film relies heavily on the headquarters of the San Francisco Chronicle where plenty of scenes take place.
