What historical person or events would make for a great movie but will probably never get made?

Tom Paine. He really lived an amazing life. Few facts are known about him before he immigrated to America. We know that he worked with his father at his shop, he tried a few other careers. He was married at one point. I believe his wife left him. All evidence says that he was a miserable failure at most of what he attempted.

When he was middle aged he immigrated to America. He nearly died on the journey and was nursed back to health by Benjamin Franklin. He became a respected inventor and had a love for science.

He was most known for his pamphlet Common Sense. This short pamphlet caused an uproar and helped gain support for independence. Prior to this the idea of revolution was not taken seriously by most people. Sure, other people wrote about it but they were elitists who wrote for intellectuals. Tom Paine wrote words that the common man could understand.

Writing common sense was an act of treason against Britain and he could have been killed for it. He truly risked his life. After writing Common Sense, he took up arms and helped fight in the revolutionary war. He was offered a reward for all he had done for America but he turned it down.

He then went to France to help them fight for independence. Here he was imprisoned. Since he assumed he was going to die, he wrote this thoughts on religion. It was a book filled with harsh criticism of organized religion called The Age of Reason.

Paine was not executed though. He survived the ordeal and when people read his book, many were angered. All his dear friends abandoned him including Jefferson who wouldnt return his letters. He died broke and possibly an alcoholic. Nobody knows where he is buried.

/r/history Thread