Final Draft Blog

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Benjamin Kramer: How Big Break Fueled His Success

March 20, 2025

The goal of Final Draft’s Big Break Screenwriting Contest has always been to boost the screenwriting career of winners and finalists. For writer Benjamin Kramer, winning the 2021 Big Break Action/Adventure category was just the push he needed to not ...

‘House of David’: Bringing an Ancient Story to Today’s Audience

March 4, 2025

Filmed on location in Greece over five months, Prime Video’s new TV show, House of David, takes us back 3,000 years to tell the story of the biblical figure David (Michael Iskander), who not only defeats a giant named Goliath (Martyn Ford), but rises...

Multi-Cam TV Writing Tips from a Top Showrunner

February 11, 2025

Michelle Nader is one of the most accomplished multi-cam and comedy writers working today.

How Sundance’s ‘Rabbit Trap’ Screenplay Took Shape

January 31, 2025

For his feature debut and Sundance premiere Rabbit Trap, writer/director Bryn Chainey took what might seem like an unconventional path to develop the period horror story. After drafting two unproduced features with the goal of trying to fit industry ...

'Lady in the Lake' Show Creator Alma Har’el Goes Deep into Character

August 14, 2024

At the core of Lady in the Lake is a noir mystery about the death of a young black woman in 1960s Baltimore. But the seven-part AppleTV+ show is so much more than a straightforward whodunit. Inspired by the 2019 book of the same name by Laura Lippman...

'Wonderland' Writer/Director Tells You How to Survive a Screenwriting Career

August 6, 2024

Writer/director James Cox has had an incredibly successful career as a filmmaker, making movies such as Wonderland, Straight A’s, and Billionaire Boys Club. While fairy tales can come true, the film business can be a rollercoaster even for the most b...

Oscar-Winning Writer of 'Ghost' Explores Death Experiences on Film and in Life in New Memoir

August 5, 2024

The film Ghost (1990) is one of the most iconic love stories ever put on film. Who can forget Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore sensually touching fingers through soft, buttery clay as the song “Unchained Melody” is soulfully crooned by The Righteous Bro...

Screenwriter Spotlight: How Joe Russo Broke into Hollywood Without Knowing Anyone

August 2, 2024

If you don't know anybody in the film industry, breaking into Hollywood might seem like an impossible feat. Oh, but you'd be mistaken! In fact, we chatted with Joe Russo, screenwriter of The Inheritance, Soul Mates, and The Au Pair Nightmare, about t...

Write On 'Cobra Kai' Showrunners Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald and Hayden Schlossberg

July 19, 2024

“We were all six or seven years old when [the first Karate Kid movie] came out. So all of us saw it in the theater and I think for all of us, it was probably the first time any of us had seen a movie where there was such an amazing twist that happene...