"I think we have it."
A dramatized version of how a book, painting, movie, etc. came to be made. Unlike the Biopic, this focuses on the creator's work on a single piece rather than the entire story of their life, though usually one or two other pieces crop up as background.
This trope is not about "making of" documentaries, which are far more common. Subtrope of Set Behind the Scenes. Compare and contrast Amateur Film-Making Plot. See also "How I Wrote This Article" Article, which is writing about not knowing what to write anymore.
Examples (listed with the work):
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Anime and Manga
Films — Live-Action
- And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (The Life of General Villa
)
- Capote (In Cold Blood)
- The Disaster Artist: Technically an inversion, since it dramatizes the production of a movie widely recognized as So Bad, It's Good.
- Dolemite Is My Name is another So Bad, It's Good example, depicting the circumstances involving the making of the Cult Classic Dolemite.
- Edmond (2019) (Cyrano de Bergerac)
- Eiffel (The Eiffel Tower)
- Finding Neverland (Peter Pan)
- The Agony and the Ecstasy (painting of the Sistine Chapel)
- Topsy-Turvy (The Mikado)
- Cradle Will Rock (The Cradle Will Rock)
- Creation (Darwin's On the Origin of Species)
- Hitchcock (Psycho)
- Saving Mr. Banks (Mary Poppins)
- Shakespeare in Love (an entirely fictional account of how Romeo and Juliet was written)
- Shadow of the Vampire (Nosferatu, obviously fictional—Max Schreck is really a vampire!)
- RKO 281 (Citizen Kane)
- BAADASSSSS! (Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song)
- Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (creating the original Wonder Woman)
- The Man Who Invented Christmas (A Christmas Carol)
- Jew Süss: Rise and Fall (Jew Süss)
- Sin (the unfinished tomb of Pope Julius II by Michelangelo Buonarroti)
- Mank (also about Citizen Kane)
Literature
- The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follet (building of Kingsbridge Cathedral)
- Girl with a Pearl Earring (painting... Girl with a Pearl Earring)
Live Action TV
- An Adventure in Space and Time (The William Hartnell years of Doctor Who)
- The Offer (The Godfather).
Theatre
- The first half of Sunday in the Park with George (Georges Seurat's painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", though Very Loosely Based on a True Story at best.)
