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.

Write On with The Black List's Kate Hagen

April 30, 2021

Since 2005, each December The Black List releases its annual list, a survey of the most liked unproduced screenplays of that year. The Black List also works to foster a large community of writers through screenwriting labs, online resources, and in-p...

The Virtuoso' looks into the paranoid world of an assassin for hire

April 30, 2021

Ideas come in a variety of ways. Sometimes it’s the lyrics of a song, an article you find online, or even a conversation you overhear. For director Nick Stagliano’s The Virtuoso, the idea came from an unlikely place — one of his previous films.

History of TV: Bad boy for life ‘Martin’

April 29, 2021

The Martin Lawrence vehicle was one of Fox’s highest rated shows during its run between 1992 and 1997. It won a People’s Choice Award for Favorite New TV Comedy Series in 1993, as well as multiple NAACP Image Award nominations and wins for outstandin...

Limbo' writer-director Ben Sharrock on using humor to share the story of the refugee experience

April 28, 2021

Standing alone in a telephone booth on a remote Scottish island, Omar (Amir El-Masry) calls his parents to share the progress of his asylum request. He looks down at the plaster cast on his arm as his father badgers him over his inability to play his...

Growing Up Milwaukee' seeks to go beyond statistics

April 27, 2021

Statistics out of Milwaukee are shocking and depressing for Black kids in the city. In a report that came out in August 2020, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Center for Economic Development stated that "Black Milwaukee is generally worse off toda...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: ‘Thunder Force’ offers female superhero movie in the form of farce

April 26, 2021

Thunder Force has Chicago facing a lot of bad guys, aka Miscreants, in the wake of a radioactive blast that gave ordinary humans extraordinary powers — or simply the arms of a crustacean, like Jason Bateman’s wayward crab-armed love interest "The Cra...

Natasha Henstridge attempts to survive one wild night in ‘Night of the Sicario’

April 23, 2021

Night of the Sicario follows a group at a retirement home just trying to ride out a hurricane. Things go sideways when members of a cartel show up because the determined Taylor Ward (Natasha Henstridge) has agreed to shelter two witnesses in a drug t...

My True Fairytale' embraces grief through a mystical story inspired by real life

April 22, 2021

My True Fairytale rides the balance between horrific and hopeful, mythical and magical, and learning how to save yourself when it matters most. The film could be described as a suspenseful thriller as much as a drama with a lesson.

Moment of Truth' Filmmaker Matthew Perniciaro On Structuring the Story Of a Real-Life Crime

April 21, 2021

The father of renowned NBA player Michael Jordan went missing for several weeks in the summer of 1993. On Aug. 3, 1993, James Jordan’s dead body was recovered from a swamp in McColl, South Carolina, with a bullet wound in his chest.