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.

All the Write Moves: Glass

February 5, 2019

M. Night Shyamalan, modern king of the twist ending, outdid himself with the final scene of Split (2016) — his surprise hit about a serial killer with multiple personalities — by connecting the picture to Unbreakable (2000), his cult-favorite thrille...

How Sundance’s Hala Made Minhal Baig an Honest Storyteller

February 5, 2019

Minhal Baig is the writer and director of Hala, a movie which, up until its Sundance premiere, she kept secret from her mother.

Write On with Kevin O'Brien

February 5, 2019

Writer-director Kevin O'Brien discusses his transition from Creative Director to filmmaker, raising money through crowdfunding, and submitting his debut feature 'At the End of the Day' to film festivals. Information about the film can be found HERE.

The Weekend Movie Takeaway: Super Bowl Edition

February 4, 2019

Though the last three days at the box office showed the weakest Super Bowl weekend results since 2000, there are plenty of pop culture-related takeaways to be discerned from the deceptively uneventful 72 hours.

The Sunlit Night Screenwriter on the Challenges of Book-to-Screen Adaptation

February 2, 2019

Rebecca Dinerstein, author of The Sunlit Night, never expected her novel to get published. She never envisioned the book would be made into a movie, and she certainly never thought she would be the one to write the adapted screenplay. “Every phase of...

The Bricks of Breaking in: Sal Calleros on Mentorship

January 31, 2019

Mentorship can be vital to a writer looking to break into the industry, but finding a mentor and building a relationship with that person can be challenging.

The Weekend Movie Takeaway: January 28, 2019

January 29, 2019

The first weekend since Oscar® nominations were announced didn’t see notable action on the box office front; but plenty of interesting, film-related developments happened elsewhere.

The Weekend Movie Takeaway: January 22, 2019

January 23, 2019

Although early tracking suggested it would earn close to $60 million, M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass took in around $47 million over the long weekend; an impressive haul for a film that cost less than half of that to make, but not quite a triumphant retu...

All the Write Moves: If Beale Street Could Talk

January 21, 2019

Like his previous film, the Oscar-winning drama Moonlight (2016), Barry Jenkins’ new picture, If Beale Street Could Talk, might seem like a difficult artifact from which to extract screenwriting lessons. While both films have received considerable ac...