Final Draft Blog

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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...

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...

Write On with 'We Are Lady Parts' Creator Nida Manzoor

June 21, 2022

Created, written, and directed by Nida Manzoor, We Are Lady Parts follows a British punk rock band consisting entirely of Muslim women as they strive for musical success.

Writer-Director Mali Elfman on her Tribeca debut 'Next Exit'

June 21, 2022

Next Exit is a sci-fi dramedy that debuted at 2022’s Tribeca Film Festival and follows the “what next” of characters Rose and Teddy, two strangers who end up sharing a rental car to drive across the country to meet with Dr. Stevenson for their rendez...