Why the Jewels of Mexico's Journalism Are Becoming Hollywood Hits

From recent blockbusters like Spotlight, Argo and Beautiful Boy, back to classics like Dog Day Afternoon and The Killing Fields, journalism has provided the basis for countless box office hits. However in Mexico, it is only recently that articles worthy of recreation on screen have become more common. In a country known for its magical realism, increasingly everyday life is more than enough. It is clear that audiences continue to love what is authentic, because in the end, what is more exciting than the truth? 

In 2013, an article in Wired Magazine was published with the headline ‘A Radical Way of Unleashing a Generation of Geniuses’. It told the story of a group of young students in Matamoros, Mexico, who went from middling to best in the country through digital access, newfound independence, and self-taught learning, led by Sergio Juárez Correa. 10 years later, it became a box-office hit, with Eugenio Derbez at the helm. 

This is no outlier. A few weeks ago, I saw that ‘The Gringo Hunters’, a new Netflix series being shot in Mexico, was based on the Washington Post article “A U.S. murder suspect fled to Mexico. The Gringo Hunters were waiting”. It’s a riveting story of creative crime-solving and dedication to justice near the border. 

Even earlier, in 2020, Blumhouse acquired the rights to the incredible New York Times story on Miriam Rodríguez’s brave search for justice, tracking down and putting in prison 10 of her daughter’s kidnappers, until she herself was tragically shot outside her home in 2017. 

The growth of these adaptations in part stems from the improved infrastructure to support long-form journalism as a basis for scripts. Now the well-established website Epic Magazine, formed by the Wired journalists Joshuah Bearman (who wrote the article which inspired Argo) and Joshua Davis, provides a platform for ‘extraordinary true stories’. This allows writers to publish and sell the rights to their film-worthy stories, with now more than 50 or more articles optioned by Hollywood, including Radical. 

Furthermore, after years of buying the rights to an article, film companies are making deals, and increasingly seeing the clear benefits of gaining first rights to viral news stories. Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) has struck a deal with news organisation Guardian Media Group for these rights, gaining access to any current and developing stories as well as its 200-year archive. I know of similar deals that are currently being negotiated in Mexico. 

Of course, some retellings become more ‘creative’, and surpass the original – Anh Do, a reporter who covered the original case of a getaway driver in the Vietnamese community of Orange County, found ‘truth and romanticised fiction’ in the film retelling The Accidental Getaway Driver. When Hustlers was adapted from Jessica Pressler’s article ‘The Hustlers at

Scores’ she felt slightly conflicted – ‘It’s not not true, and I imagine it’s how my sources feel when they read my work. Sometimes months will go by in a single paragraph. It happens the same way on screen, and it’s a little discombobulating.’ In the end, that’s the screenwriter and their adaptation’s job – making it fit into a TV series or 100-minute movie. Embellishment and cuts are inevitable. 

Long-form journalism, and the labour of intensive research, is becoming more valuable than ever. Although traditional news is struggling to keep up in the digital age, the recent influx of powerful, real-life stories to the Mexican filmmaking landscape, including through documentaries, highlights how valuable a great article can be. 

In Mexico, it remains very dangerous to be a journalist, and censorship is common. Protecting and supporting the profession and the brave work they do is vital to society and the creative arts. We should aim to work with reporters on these scripts. Their perspectives, through time spent carrying out interviews on the ground, and immersed in the environment, offer just as much, if not more, than the writers’ room. 

In a Hollywood once dominated by blockbusters, sequels, and huge studios, audiences more and more want to connect to the authentic, the real, and the everyday. The next big hit could easily come from a morning scan of the news.