“Green Book”

Universal Pictures

Peter Farrelly had never heard of “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” the manual given to African-american travelers driving through the Jim Crow- era South, before he made this film. In the drama, this book is given to Italian-american nightclub bouncer Tony Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) who drives musician Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) through America’s Deep South. Other details came from co-writer Nick Vallelonga’s interviews with his dad. But there were certain liberties taken: they actually rode in a black Coupe de Ville (Farrelly thought the blue one filmed better).