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‘The Terminal List’ showrunner empowers his writers room to create great TV

July 8, 2022

The Terminal List wasn’t a piece of intellectual property that David DiGilio owned. Instead, he was offered the opportunity to pitch his perspective on the show and get hired on as showrunner. What he brought to the table was both experience and his ...

Filmmaker Rebeca Huntt revisits her journal in Tribeca darling 'Beba'

July 7, 2022

I had the pleasure of speaking with auteur writer/director, Rebeca Huntt, shortly after the Tribeca debut of her first feature project, Beba. Told through the first-person point of view of Huntt herself, Beba [Spanish for baby] is a didactic document...

Write On: 'Marcel the Shell' Cowriters on Writing a Script

July 6, 2022

Based on the viral YouTube short from 2010, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On follows Marcel (Jenny Slate), a 1-inch tall shell who lives a colorful existence with his grandmother Connie (Isabella Rossellini) and their pet lint, Alan. When asked about c...

‘Apples’ director Christos Nikou speaks on creating art from a place of pain

June 28, 2022

Apples is a joyous study in getting to make exactly the movie you want. Its specificity of tone and taking the time to bask in its strangeness owe many thanks to the self-assured hand of filmmaker Christos Nikou. Nikou has invented a strange and wond...

Write On with 'Spiderhead' Co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick

June 28, 2022

Based on George Saunders' short story Escape from Spiderhead, the Netflix adaptation follows inmates at a state-of-the-art penitentiary who volunteer as medical subjects to shorten their sentences. Paul Wernick describes the moment he and co-writer R...

Rising Through the Ranks: Jake Lawler on falling in love with the leap

June 27, 2022

Jake Lawler brings all the focus and determination from his history as a professional athlete to his current career in the writers’ room. “I wish 10yr old me could see how good it gets, but I know I’m making him proud,” Lawler tweeted after landing i...

Phantom of the Open:' Simon Farnaby shares his adaptation process with screenwriters

June 23, 2022

“This story means a lot to me,” director and writer Simon Farnaby tells Final Draft about his latest movie, Phantom of the Open, which is the true-life story of shipyard worker Maurice Flitcroft (played by Mark Rylance) who dared to dream and somehow...

Minx' showrunner Ellen Rapoport gives us lessons in boldness

June 21, 2022

If you have yet to watch Minx, you are in for a treat. The two-hander featuring a pair of mismatched lovers of freedom who start a female-driven porn mag with a feminist message is definitely one of the most fun comedies of the year. The show tells t...

‘Shining Girls’ creator on adapting her favorite novel for Apple TV+

June 21, 2022

There are a lot of serial-killer shows on television but Shining Girls is unique. The film is based on Lauren Beukes's novel and is not afraid to dive into the aftermath of trauma. The show is helmed by Silka Luisa (Halo). The piece embraces the chan...