Final Draft Blog

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Read interviews with the pros, catch up with industry news, and listen to Write On: A Screenwriting Podcast by Final Draft.

The Great’s Tony McNamara on Making History Characters Feel Modern

May 23, 2023

Power. Sex. Identity. And comedy? Huzzah! Season 3 of The Great is finally streaming on Hulu and we’re heating up the borscht! If you haven’t seen the show, it’s about Catherine the Great’s (Elle Fanning) marriage to Peter III of Russia (Nicholas Hou...

History of the World, Part II Showrunner on Mel Brooks: ‘I Get Chills Every Time I Say His Name’

May 18, 2023

Editor's Note: This interview took place before the 2023 WGA strike. The year was 1981. Not sure if I should admit this, but I’m old enough to remember going to the movie theater, not the kind with stadium seating, but the kind with sticky floors and...

Final Draft Creates Template to Remove Barriers for Differently-Abled Writers

May 16, 2023

Films like Everything Everywhere All At Once, CODA, Inside Out, Champions, and Silver Linings Playbook all have something extraordinary in common: they include a spectrum of neurodiverse characters of differing abilities.

Guardians of the Galaxy: How Family, Humor and Music Equal Smash Hit

May 11, 2023

Who are the Guardians of the Galaxy? Ten years ago, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who knew anything about this group or was even interested in a movie about these unknown characters roaming the galaxy.

Write On: Daisy Jones & the Six's co-showrunner Scott Neustadter

May 4, 2023

The story of how Daisy Jones & the Six went from book to TV show is a fascinating one. Scott Neustadter, best known for comedies like 500 Days of Summer and The Disaster Artist, was sent the unpublished manuscript about the rise of a rock band in...

Staying Motivated as a Screenwriter

May 2, 2023

The life of the screenwriter isn’t always an easy one.

Write On: Blindspotting's Rafael Casal on Hiring Writers for his Room

April 25, 2023

Final Draft's Write On podcast series sits down with co-creator Rafael Casal on the second season of his half-hour comedy series Blindspotting. The show centers on Ashley, who lives in Oakland, Calif. When her partner (who is also the father of her s...

Screenwriting Homage Vs. Screenwriting Stealing

April 25, 2023

Many screenwriters like to insert homages to past films into their screenplays, but the king of the cinematic homage has to be Quentin Tarantino.

How Ted Lasso Succeeds At Representing Female Friendships

April 7, 2023

The Emmy-award winning Apple TV series, Ted Lasso, is successful at a lot of things – like melding British and American humor, and making people care about the other sport called football.