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.

Jeremiah Zagar on his Sundance-Winning Film 'We the Animals'

August 17, 2018

Though Jeremiah Zagar’s adaptation of Justin Torres’ We the Animals made its debut only months ago at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, critics are already praising it.

How screenwriter Noga Landau took her contained sci-fi, "Tau" from film school to Netflix

August 15, 2018

Have you heard the film school fairy tale of a woman who wrote a script for a screenwriting class; attracted top agents overnight, secured Gary Oldman as the voice of her robot, and distributed the film worldwide as a Netflix original?

An L.A. Minute Director on Cinema’s Love/Hate Relationship with the City of Angels

August 8, 2018

As one of the most storied and dynamic cities in America, Los Angeles is often the backdrop for cinematic fodder. From the comical L.A. Story to the (ahem, almost) 2017 Oscar® best picture winner La La Land, cinema has long drawn upon the multidimens...

Sundance Lab Spotlight: Brett Weiner and Emma Fletcher

July 6, 2018

Each year, Sundance Institute labs bring together aspiring writers and directors who want to take their projects to the next level. Notable projects that evolved in these labs include Damien Chazelle's Whiplash; Cary Fukunaga’s Sin Nombre and Ryan Co...

Madeline Zima Makes her Writing and Directorial Debut with "Warm Human Magic" at Dances With Films Festival

June 14, 2018

At the age of two, actress Madeline Zima performed in her first TV commercial. From there, she went on to roles in The Nanny, Californication and Heroes. Recently, Madeline stepped into a whole new type of role — that of writer-director.

All the Write Moves: "Solo: A Star Wars Story"

June 4, 2018

Most quick-take analyses of Solo: A Star Wars Story focus on the movie’s disappointing opening-weekend haul, with some pundits going so far as to say Solo is the first flop of the Star Wars franchise. When trying to understand how cinematic storytell...

All the Write Moves: "Deadpool 2"

June 1, 2018

The makers of Deadpool (2016) endeared themselves to the screenwriting community with a gag in the film’s opening credits, referring to scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick as “the real heroes here.” Yet in the opening credits of Deadpool 2, those sa...

Spec Spotlight: Michael and Shawn Rasmussen's "Crawl" is Fast-Tracked by Paramount

May 31, 2018

Eight years after John Carpenter directed The Ward, writers Michael and Shawn Rasmussen’s work is in the hands of horror royalty again.

Write On with our 2018 Hall of Fame Award winner, Howard A. Rodman

February 6, 2018

Howard A. Rodman, past President of the Writers Guild, West comes from a family of writers and entertainers; his father was a screenwriter, his mother a script coordinator and his step-mother a soap actress.