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.

Last Call' Raises Its Glass To the Working Class In the Old Neighborhood

March 19, 2021

This is the story of a real estate developer and an independent filmmaker teaming up to make a movie. While that’s not the plot of Last Call, it is the origin story of a new film starring Jeremy Piven, Taryn Manning, Bruce Dern and Jamie Kennedy.

History of TV: CW’s Supernatural Soap Opera ‘The Vampire Diaries’

March 18, 2021

No, it’s not a Twilight rip-off. Impossible when L.J. Smith’s original Vampire Diaries series was published more than a decade before we were ever introduced to Bella, Edward and Jacob.

Writer-Director Jess Varley on the Real Life Fears Behind 'Phobias'

March 18, 2021

Phobias, a horror film about a group of strangers brought together by their fears for an insidious medical experiment, is rooted in the real-life fears of its creators.

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: ‘Moxie’ Embraces Feminism Via the Lens of the Riot Grrrl

March 17, 2021

It’s likely much of Gen Z has never heard of a Riot grrrl. Actor Hadley Robinson was totally unaware of "Bikini Kill" when she was cast as the lead Vivian in Moxie. But Amy Poehler took on the YA novel adaptation to help change that, and hopefully th...

Write On with the WGA East’s New York Screenwriters Workshop

March 16, 2021

The New York Screenwriters Workshop sponsored by Final Draft is a weekly intensive for early-career, New York City-based screenwriters who are under-represented in the film industry. Write On host Phil Galasso talks with one of the workshop’s fellows...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways From 'I Care a Lot'

March 12, 2021

From the very beginning, I Care a Lot makes the viewer uncomfortable and puts them on edge. That’s the point, though. It drives the viewer towards wanting to know how everything will play out. If there's one thing the film accomplishes, it’s frighten...

Afro Horror: Revisiting 'Us' (2019)

March 12, 2021

This month marks the second anniversary of Jordan Peele’s instant horror classic, Us, which hit theaters March 22nd, 2019. In the film, a nuclear family traveling to their summer home for a vacation falls into a deadly mystery of mistaken identity, l...

History of TV: How 'Sex and the City' Put HBO on the Map

March 11, 2021

Discovering Sex and the City halfway through university proved detrimental to my already poor sleep habits. I binge-watched entire seasons and I credit it with one of my long-standing relationships: Mr. Big. Though in my case he’s a six-pound Yorkie ...

Patrick Ness’s ‘Chaos Walking’ Lays Bare Thoughts, Feelings, And Toxic Masculinity

March 10, 2021

Chaos Walking, originally a novel by Patrick Ness who also co-wrote the script with Christopher Ford, has a striking premise. It’s set on a planet in a post-Earth world where men’s thoughts can be heard by others and women don’t seem to exist (at fir...