Write On: A Screenwriting Podcast
332 episodes - English - Latest episode: 15 days ago - ★★★★★ - 117 ratingsDesigned to help you navigate the screenwriting industry, Final Draft, interviews working screenwriters, agents, managers, and producers to show you how successful executives and writers make a living writing and working with screenplays, and how you can use their knowledge to break into the industry. Subscribe today to catch every episode!
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Episodes
Write On: 'The First Omen' Writers Arkasha Stevenson and Tim Smith
April 10, 2024 16:23 - 36 minutes - 50 MB“We had to go back to the ratings board five times. It was a long journey. You have to laugh sometimes, because we had some really grotesque imagery in our film. We even have a demon phallus in the film and nobody was worried about that. It was really the image of the vagina that was getting us that rating,” says Arkasha Stevenson, director, and co-screenwriter for The First Omen, about initially getting an NC17 rating from the Motion Picture Association. After much back and forth, the film ...
Write On: 'Arthur the King' Writer Michael Brandt
March 19, 2024 03:34 - 30 minutes - 42.4 MBWriter Michael Brandt is no stranger to the big and small screen. Having written such thrilling films like 3:10 to Yuma, Wanted, 2 Fast 2 Furious and Catch That Kid, he is also the co-creator of NBC’s Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago P.D. and Chicago Justice. His latest film, which he adapted from the book, "Arthur: The Dog Who Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home," is a story of friendship and survival. The film stars Mark Wahlberg and Simu Liu. Final Draft sat down with ...
Write On: 'The American Society of Magical Negroes' Writer/Director Kobe Libii
March 13, 2024 16:08 - 21 minutes - 30.1 MB"When I sat down to start writing it, I sort of like came up with air a couple of hours later with a movie," says writer/director Kobi Libii about the origins of his new satirical comedy, The American Society of Magical Negros. “I think it's kind of beautiful that people don't have a reaction that I recognize because my job is to be really honest, especially about stuff that is that I'm sort of afraid to say.” Final Draft sat down with the writer/director to talk more about how he created ...
Write On: WGAeast Mentors Andrew Bergman and Caroline Kaplan and NY Screenwriting Fellowship Mentee Irina Rodriguez
March 11, 2024 19:08 - 42 minutes - 59 MB“Just write a story you want to tell and don't try to write something which you think you can sell to somebody because that way is madness. You have to write what you want to write whether it works or not for other people. But if it's not authentic to you, it's doomed at some point along the road. So stick to your guns!” says award-winning writer, Andrew Bergman about writing your first spec script. The Writers Guild of America East has again partnered with FilmNation and Final Draft for t...
Write On: 'Imaginary' Writer/Director Jeff Wadlow and Co-Writers Greg Erb & Jason Oremland
March 05, 2024 20:58 - 37 minutes - 52.2 MB“The movie in many ways is about creativity. And it's one of the reasons why I really love it. It's not just about an evil haunted teddy bear. It's about the power of imagination. There's a reason why the movie isn't called Chauncey - it's called Imaginary. It was really fun as screenwriters to just let our creativity run wild and think of all the different ways we could explore imagination and creativity through the lens of a movie,” says Jeff Wadlow, director and co-writer of Blumhouse’s n...
Write On: 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' Showrunner and Executive Producer Albert Kim
March 02, 2024 03:49 - 39 minutes - 54 MB“I would encourage anyone to lean into the specificity of their personal experience [when it comes to writing]. I mean, we're at a time now, fortunately, where everyone is more open to those kinds of stories… Look at something like Beef. The specificity of that storytelling is what makes it special. It's not like they come out with a logline, saying, ‘This is a story about Asian families.’ It's a story about two people who get involved in the road rage incident, but all of that is set in the...
Write On: 'Bob Marley: One Love' Writers Terence Winter and Frank E. Flowers
February 22, 2024 02:15 - 41 minutes - 57.6 MB“I think what's unique about this biopic and about Bob [Marley’s] story is that it really wasn't about his ego, it wasn't about him trying to be the biggest star in the world. It was about him connecting with God. I mean, he would smoke weed to kind of lower his ego and raise his consciousness so that he could read scripture, right? He would take these basic concepts: love thy neighbor, all people are equal, and try and channel that and inhabit that,” says Frank E. Flowers, co-writer of Bob ...
Write On: 'Masters of the Air' Co-Executive Producer and Writer John Orloff
February 17, 2024 00:52 - 41 minutes - 57.2 MB“I always go back to theme. Why are you writing this story? What is that final couple of minutes of the movie and what do you want the audience to feel? I kind of always build backward from that in some ways. In a movie, how do I make the 118 minutes preceding those two minutes build to those last two minutes? To me that’s a really good film. And anything that's not helping build to those last two minutes, throw it out!,” says John Orloff, writer/creator of Masters of the Air, the new nine-p...
Write On: 'Land of Bad' Director/Co-Writer William Eubank
February 12, 2024 03:56 - 28 minutes - 39.2 MB"You want to write stuff you want to see, that's the key. Just write something new something fresh, something interesting," says director and co-writer William Eubank of Land of Bad, the new intense, action-packed movie about a Delta Force team that gets ambushed in enemy territory. Final Draft sat down with Eubank to talk about his writing process, directing Liam Hemsworth, Russell Crowe and Luke Hemsworth in this unhinged survival story full of exciting set pieces and big action moment...
Write On: 'Lawmen: Bass Reeves' Showrunner Chad Feehan
February 05, 2024 16:33 - 26 minutes - 36.9 MB“I grew up as a huge fan of Westerns but the reality of the landscape at the time was that it was incredibly diverse. And we've rarely seen that diversity on screen. I feel incredibly fortunate and humbled by the opportunity to show what life was really like in Indian territory in 1875. That it was a melting pot of cultures and races. It speaks to the beauty of Reconstruction,” says Chad Feehan, showrunner for Lawmen: Bass Reeves on Paramount+. The show is part of the highly successful Taylo...
Write On: 'Miller's Girl' Writer/director Jade Halley Bartlett
January 30, 2024 04:09 - 41 minutes - 57 MB“Personally, I think writing is bleeding. It's blood magic. It's very hard to do,” says writer/director Jade Halley Bartlett of the new Southern gothic romance, Miller’s Girl. Bartlett started her career as an actress, but it was an unexpected journey that led her to Los Angeles and magically landed her in the world of studio screenwriting. After spending a year at Marvel Studios, writing a draft of Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – only to be replaced on the job – Jade’s first fe...
Write On: 'American Fiction' Writer/Director Cord Jefferson
January 18, 2024 01:05 - 29 minutes - 39.9 MB“I think that approaching the grand things through the smallest entryways possible is the best way to go about taking on these massive issues… So yes, this movie is about race and racism and art and who's allowed to make certain kinds of art - these are really big, unwieldy issues. But the reason that I think people can relate to them –and it doesn't feel so top heavy or clumsy – is because you see it through a character that was deeply personal to me,” says Cord Jefferson, writer/director o...
Write On: 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' Writers Chris Miller, Phil Lord and Dave Callaham
January 11, 2024 20:24 - 40 minutes - 55.3 MB“The lesson we keep learning is that the thing that breaks you [into Hollywood] is your weirdest idea. The thing that only you can write… All of our friends who have done that – it's been a fulcrum in their career,” says Phil Lord, co-writer of Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse. On today’s episode, I chat with Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Dave Callaham about taking the Spider-Man franchise into the modern era, making it fresh, heartfelt and multicultural. While Lord and Miller both w...
Write On: 'Dumb Money' Writers Lauren Schuker Blum & Rebecca Angelo
January 06, 2024 19:44 - 37 minutes - 51.3 MB“When we were starting [to write screenplays], we were told, ‘Write your story, write your story, write your story.’ But our story is not that interesting. So, I would say, don't write your story necessarily, write the story that you fall in love with and find the human connection between you and the characters that you are depicting,” says Dumb Money co-writer Rebecca Angelo. On today’s episode, I talk with writing partners Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo about their recent film D...
Write On: 'Blackberry' Writers Matt Johnson and Matthew Miller
December 22, 2023 16:40 - 27 minutes - 37.3 MBFinal Draft's Write On Podcast sits down with Blackberry writers Matt Johnson and Matthew Miller to talk about how they wrote this epic story of the rise and fall of the world's first portable email machine. Johnson and Miller loosely adapted the script from Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff's book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry. The film Blackberry is a bio-pic dramedy that follows the fictional story of the Blackberry c...
Write On: 'The Iron Claw' Writer/Director Sean Durkin
December 21, 2023 18:40 - 34 minutes - 47.1 MB“I just really encourage people to truly go to those darker places because the way forward in dealing with dark material is not to do some partial version of it. Go there so that it sparks a truth to people watching it because people want to be moved. People want to see their experiences reflected in a new way back at them. If you're drawn to it and it's meaningful to you, chances are it's going to be meaningful to others. Stick with it and be brave,” says writer/director Sean Durkin about e...
Write On: 'Air' Screenwriter Alex Convey
December 20, 2023 17:05 - 39 minutes - 54.5 MBThe film Air was released in theaters back in April – right before the WGA Writer's Strike. It tells the story of how the iconic partnership between Nike shoes and basketball player Michael Jordan came to be way back in 1984. It’s one of those partnerships that really wasn’t supposed to happen, but when it did, it changed the world of sports marketing forever. Directed by Ben Affleck, the script is written by Alex Convery and made the Blacklist in 2021. But just like the partnership betwee...
Write On: 'Saltburn' Writer Emerald Fennell
December 19, 2023 17:16 - 28 minutes - 39.8 MB“I like having sympathy for the devil. And all of them are devilish!” says Emerald Fennell about her characters in the new film Saltburn. Writer/director/actress Emerald Fennell dazzled us with 2020’s Promising Young Woman, for which she took home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Now she’s back with Saltburn, a shocking romantic tragedy (or triumph according to her!). On this episode of the podcast, I speak to Emerald in depth about crafting the screenplay for Saltburn and finding e...
Write On: 'Silo' Showrunner Graham Yost
December 15, 2023 19:26 - 37 minutes - 51.5 MB“It really comes down to scene work. Do these characters pop? Is this fun to read? Is it fun to imagine what’s going to happen next? When you get to the end of that pilot do you want to find out what’s going to happen in the next episode? It’s all of that,” says Graham Yost, showrunner for Silo on AppleTV+. You may not know the name Graham Yost, but you certainly know his TV shows: Justified, The Americans, Slow Horses, Sneaky Pete, From the Earth to the Moon, and Band of Brothers just to ...
Write On: 'Napoleon' Writer David Scarpa
December 12, 2023 17:51 - 26 minutes - 36.7 MB“We can’t make Lawrence of Arabia anymore – not that that’s not a good movie, but it’s kind of a thing of the past,” says screenwriter David Scarpa about writing the script for Napoleon. Scarpa says both he and director Ridley Scott wanted to bring a freshness to the historical figure from our history books by, “Showing the more irreverent, dark, more psychologically motivated side of [Napoleon].” In our conversation, we dig into writing the battle scenes at Toulon and Austerlitz and how...
Write On: Writer Chris Hicks Talks Massive Sale of His Short Story 'I Am Not Alone'
December 07, 2023 20:03 - 41 minutes - 57.3 MB“My cardinal rule – the rule that you cannot break is: don't be boring. Because you can have the perfect script that follows every screenplay formatting rule, but if you're boring, it doesn't matter. First and foremost, you’ve got to hook the reader,” says screenplay and short story writer Chris Hicks. Hicks is the author of a short story called “I Am Not Alone,” that recently was the subject of a five-party bidding war that came down to Warner Bros. and Netflix, with Netflix proving the v...
Write On: 'Poor Things' Writer Tony McNamara
December 06, 2023 19:34 - 39 minutes - 53.9 MB“I don’t write sex scenes. I write character scenes and sometimes they’re having sex during their character scenes. It’s a beat about character,” says Tony McNamara. Known for the TV show The Great on Hulu and 2018’s The Favourite, screenwriter Tony McNamara’s new film is Poor Things, staring Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe with a genius performance from Mark Ruffalo who’s already getting Best Supporting Actor buzz. Adapted from the book Poor Things by Alasdair Gray, this film is part Franke...
Write On: 'Candy Cane Lane' Writer Kelly Younger
November 29, 2023 20:34 - 36 minutes - 49.5 MBEddie Murphy’s new holiday comedy Candy Cane Lane pokes fun at the idea of being super competitive during the Christmas decorating season. Kelly Younger sat down with Final Draft’s Write On podcast to talk about writing the spec script that became a reality in our latest episode. “My manager who I've had for years always sort of keeping track of my projects, and we put some under when he calls the three Ps: passion, propel, and paycheck. Write something that's a passion project, something ...
Write On: 'The Continental: From The World Of John Wick' Writer Kirk Ward and Director Albert Hughes
November 27, 2023 20:21 - 48 minutes - 67.2 MB“I'm now at a place where I say to myself, ‘What haven't we seen?’ And then we take it to a place that’s completely, absolutely bonkers,” says writer Kirk Ward about his new show The Continental: From The World Of John Wick. “You take the audience down the road of a trope and then turn. That's the joy of collaboration and creativity for me.” The Continental is a disco noire three-part miniseries that tells the origin story of The Continental Hotel from the famed John Wick universe. In my d...
Write On: 'May December' Writer Samy Burch
November 21, 2023 20:50 - 25 minutes - 34.8 MB“A lot of the scenes are [shot in] one take. The space that they hold, the amount of air that they let sit there before saying their next line. I mean it’s an incredible amount of tension and intimacy,” says screenwriter Samy Burch about her new film May December, which streams on Netflix December 1st. It sounds so simple and commonplace, but it's a lesson in not only great acting but also writing great subtext. Directed by Todd Haynes and starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, May...
Write On: Showrunner Chris Black on 'Monarch: Legacy of Monsters'
November 20, 2023 23:16 - 29 minutes - 40 MBFinal Draft's Write On podcast sits down with Showrunner Chris Black to talk about his new show, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. “For it to be successful as a TV series, it couldn't be a show about monsters. It had to be a show about people who happen to live in a world where monsters are real," Black says when describing what it was like to pitch the show to Apple TV. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters picks up the "monsterverse" story after the battle between Godzilla and the Titans and follows on...
Write On: 'Rustin' Writer Julian Breece
November 13, 2023 17:29 - 29 minutes - 40 MB“Be sneaky and read every script that you can get your hands on. If you can work in a studio, read the original draft, read the revisions, see how the script got to the final script. That's what I was doing. I would use the opportunities of working in that system to learn,” says screenwriter Julian Breece on Final Draft’s Write On Podcast. Julian, along with Dustin Lance Black, wrote Rustin, the new biopic about little-known civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, played exquisitely by actor ...
Write On: 'The Holdovers' Writer David Hemingson
November 10, 2023 17:57 - 30 minutes - 42.3 MBDirector Alexander Payne’s new film The Holdovers, is set in the 1970s and tells the story of a grumpy ancient history instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who’s forced to remain on campus during the Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of the students, an oddball troublemaker (Dominic Sessa), and the school’s cafeteria lady (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), whose son was recently killed in Vietnam. ...
Write On: 'It's a Wonderful Knife' Writer Michael Kennedy
November 08, 2023 18:08 - 34 minutes - 47.9 MBOne year after saving the town of Angel Falls from a psychotic killer on Christmas Eve, Winnie Carruthers (Jane Widdop) can’t let the fear and guilt of the event go. Struggling to make sense if her life, she wishes she’d never been born – only to find herself in a nightmare parallel universe. The film is a mash up of the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life and Scream. On this episode, I speak to screenwriter/producer Michael Kennedy about using a classic Christmas movie as inspiration ...
Write On: 'The Morning Show' Showrunner Charlotte Stoudt
November 06, 2023 23:20 - 35 minutes - 48.8 MBSeason 3 of The Morning Show is now streaming on Apple TV+. With some of the most engaging actors working in television (Jennifer Anniston, Reese Witherspoon, Billy Crudup and Nicole Beharie), showrunner Charlotte Stoudt talks with us about some of the most shocking and groundbreaking scenes that are meant to blow your mind this season. This dramaturge-turned-showrunner, Stoudt’s love of working with other writers is palpable. “The delight of sharing a story space with other writers is one...
Write On: 'Nyad' Writer Julia Cox
November 06, 2023 19:49 - 41 minutes - 56.8 MBThe new film Nyad tells the true story of athlete Diana Nyad (Annette Benning) who, at the age of 60 and with the help of her best friend and coach Bonnie (Jody Foster), commits to achieving her life-long dream: a 110-mile open ocean swim from Cuba to Florida. We talk to screenwriter Julia Cox about what it was like getting to know the real Diana Nyad, structuring the screenplay to create a satisfying sports movie and creating one of the most daunting physical antagonists on the page: the oc...
Write On: 'Anatomy of a Fall' Writer/Director Justine Triet
November 02, 2023 18:23 - 19 minutes - 26.4 MB“Starting to write a project like this, we always begin with a set of very strong personal desires,” says Anatomy of a Fall writer/director Justine Triet, adding, “I’m quite reticent of scripts that are too clever or that clearly have the intension of disseminating things where information or the person disseminating information has the upper hand over my ability to navigate the narrative.” The new film Anatomy of a Fall won the Palme d’Or at the recent Cannes Film Festival and could be ca...
Write On: 'Suitable Flesh' Writer Dennis Paoli
October 27, 2023 02:28 - 37 minutes - 51.9 MB“I’m not happy with a script unless I can look through it and find at least five or six pages where there’s no dialogue – where the story tells itself through imagery,” says horror screenwriter Dennis Paoli. Feeling strongly that the screenwriter’s job is to help the director see their vision for the scenes and characters, he says that instead of writing shot-by-shot, he writes, “Visual by visual. I try to give the important visuals that are inherent in that scene that help tell the story.” ...
Write On: 'Appendage' Writer/Director Anna Zlokovic
October 10, 2023 16:06 - 28 minutes - 39.2 MB“The Fly was our biggest reference," first time feature writer/director Anna Zlokovic tells Final Draft's Write On podcast about her inspiration for her horror film Appendage. The spooky thriller is about a young fashion designer who sprouts a mysterious growth on her body that changes her life forever. We sat down with the exciting newcomer -- who was recently listed on IndieWire's 28 Rising Female Filmmakers to Watch in 2023 -- to discuss her inspiration for the film. "That movie just ...
Write On: 'Teenage Euthanasia' Co-creators Alissa Nutting and Alyson Levy
September 30, 2023 17:38 - 35 minutes - 48.7 MBAdult Swim’s animated sitcom Teenage Euthanasia is back for season 2. Set in a futuristic Florida, the Fantasy family is back at it with comedy and unbearable suffering. The show’s cast includes Cheer’s alum Bebe Neuwirth. Final Draft sat down with the show’s co-creators Alissa Nutting and Alyson Levy - a rare female animation duo in a male dominated industry - to hear about what it’s like to work together, come up with ideas and write this hit show. Teenage Euthanasia's final season p...
Write On: 'Golda' Writer and Producer Nicholas Martin
August 25, 2023 22:28 - 54 minutes - 74.7 MBThe new film Golda – starring a bewitching Helen Mirren as Golda Meir, the Iron Lady of Israel, was written and produced by Nicholas Martin. Martin is best known for writing the 2016 film Florence Foster Jenkins. With two amazing biopics about strong, defiant women, we talk about how to find the moment that defines a character and how to focus the story on a short period of time instead of a cradle-to-grave saga. For Florence Foster Jenkins, it’s her journey to Carnegie Hall and for Golda Me...
Write On: 'Physical' Showrunner Annie Weisman
August 08, 2023 11:25 - 35 minutes - 48.2 MBThe Apple TV+ series Physical, starring Rose Byrne, is set to launch its third and final season on August 2. Set in the idyllic but fragile beach paradise of sunny 1980s San Diego, Physcial is a half-hour dark comedy following Sheila Rubin (Rose Byrne) as she navigates her personal demons, most of which come in the form of noxious self-talk and an eating disorder. I talked with series creator and showrunner Annie Weisman about writing this highly personal show that explores the dark unde...
Write On: 'Joy Ride' Screenwriters Teresa Hsiao and Cherry Chevapravatdumrong
July 14, 2023 21:49 - 30 minutes - 41.7 MBWhen one woman's business trip turns into a quest to find her family, things get super funny in the new comedy Joy Ride, a raunchy road trip movie with a global spin. The film stars Oscar-nominee Stephanie Hsu, Ashley Park, Sherry Cola and Sabrina Wu. Screenwriters Teresa Hsiao and Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, who wrote the movie with writer/director Adele Lim, sat down with Final Draft to talk about writing a passion project they never thought would get made. “We were just going to write t...
Write On: 'Justified: City Primeval' Showrunner Michael Dinner
July 14, 2023 21:18 - 35 minutes - 48.8 MBThe world out there is a brutal place. If you have a hankering for some of the rough justice you remember from old-school lawman Raylan Givens – you’re in luck. Justified: City Primeval is about to drop on FX starring the same Raylan (Timothy Olyphant), we all came to know and love in the six seasons of the hit-show Justified. His hair has more sliver streaks, partly due to age but also due to worrying about his precocious 15-year-old daughter Willa (played by Olyphant’s real-life daughter V...
Write On with 'Cruel Summer' Showrunner Elle Triedman
June 26, 2023 01:22 - 27 minutes - 37.2 MBWith an excited fanbase and even more exciting plot twists, the drama/thriller series Cruel Summer is back for Season 2 on Freeform. Final Draft sat down with showrunner Elle Triedman to talk about murders, music from 1999 and the show's impressive ratings. (Season 1 was the most watched series in the Freeform's history!). This delicious show tackles teenage friendships, betrayals and characters with very big flaws. Triedman says one of her favorite parts of the show is all the room to p...
Write On with 'Wednesday' Creators Al Gough and Miles Millar
June 05, 2023 20:30 - 25 minutes - 34.9 MBThe surprise hit and breakout role for Jenna Ortega as the titular character in Netflix's spin off of the Addams Family, Wednesday, was just as exciting to create as it is to watch. "The writer's room started the first week of lockdown, so writing a Wednesday show during a global pandemic felt on brand," says creator Al Gough about writing the pilot before selling the show to Netflix. Final Draft's Write On Podcast sits down with Gough and his co-creators Miles Millar to hear about how th...
Write On with 'Big George Foreman' Writer/Director George Tillman Jr.
May 11, 2023 16:43 - 22 minutes - 30.6 MBBig George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World tells the emotional journey of the world famous boxer from his poor upbringings in Texas to his rise to Heavyweight Champion of the World and then onto reinventing himself when it was time to look beyond the gloves. Final Draft's podcast Write On sits down with writer/director George Tillman Jr. (Soul Food, The Hate U Give) to hear the inspiration behind this film. "Biopics are very complicate...
Write On with 'Daisy Jones & the Six' Co-Showrunner Scott Neustadter
May 04, 2023 17:27 - 30 minutes - 41.7 MBThe story of how Daisy Jones & the Six went from book to TV show is a fascinating one. Scott Neustadter, best known for comedies like 500 Days of Summer and The Disaster Artist, was sent the unpublished manuscript about the rise of a rock band in Los Angeles in the 1970s, on a whim. Little did he know it would become a bestseller. At the time, he had given the book to his wife, with whom he had never worked before. But she just so happened to be at Reese Witherspoon’s production company, H...
Write On with 'Blindspotting' Co-Creator Rafael Casal
April 24, 2023 18:20 - 30 minutes - 41.3 MBFinal Draft's Write On podcast series sits down with co-creator Rafael Casal on the second season of his half-hour comedy series Blindspotting. The show centers on Ashley, who lives in Oakland, Calif. When her partner (who is also the father of her son) is sent to prison, she must move in with her mother-in-law, played by Helen Hunt. “That’s a part of writing for actors. You know what they're capable of and so sometimes in the script you're not writing everything they do, but you're writing ...
Write On with 'The Woman King' Writer Dana Stevens
January 20, 2023 17:42 - 27 minutes - 38.4 MBWritten by screenwriter Dana Stevens, The Woman King is a historical epic about an all-female warrior unit that protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey during the 17th to the 19th centuries. The film is set in the 1820s and stars Viola Davis who is tasked with training the next generation of young warriors. Stevens chatted with Final Draft about discovering the “richness of the story” while writing the script. “I just could not believe that I did not know this story, that I had never ...
Write On with 'Triangle of Sadness' Writer Ruben Östlund
January 19, 2023 06:26 - 33 minutes - 46.4 MBTriangle of Sadness is a satirical black comedy from writer/director Ruben Ostlund. The film, staring Woody Harrelson, takes the world of luxury boating to the next level with its wry comedy that exposes many upstairs/downstairs differences among the characters. Ostlund discusses the importance of pitching his project before he starts writing. “If you are a writer or if you are a director, your profession is to be the artistically responsible for the product that you are producing. You are t...
Write On with 'The Northman' Co-Writers Robert Eggers and Sjón
November 10, 2022 22:05 - 20 minutes - 28.7 MBFrom visionary director Robert Eggers, The Northman follows a young Viking prince (Alexander Skarsgård) on a quest to avenge his father's murder. Eggers and his co-writer, Sjón, chatted with Final Draft about the collaborative process of working on the script. "I had lunch with Alexander Skarsgård, who said that he wanted to make a Viking movie," Eggers said, "and I said, 'I can make a Viking movie, and I know the perfect person to write it with me,' and luckily, Sjón wanted to... I wrote t...
Write On with 'Till' Co-Writer-Director Chinonye Chukwu
October 21, 2022 19:59 - 22 minutes - 30.6 MBBased on the true story of Mamie Till, Till follows Mamie as she seeks justice for the brutal lynching of her son, Emmett Till. When asked about how she chose to capture Mamie's spirit on the page, Chukwu says, "It's not just resiliency; it is survival, it is an active suppression of certain emotions that Black women are constantly put in a position of having to do; it is a difference between the public and the private self. Mamie was acutely aware of that... when I'm constructing scenes, I...
Write On with 'Reasonable Doubt' Showrunner Raamla Mohamed
October 10, 2022 20:24 - 32 minutes - 45 MBFrom Little Fires Everywhere writer Raamla Mohamed, Reasonable Doubt follows Jax Stewart (Emayatzy Corinealdi), a fearless defense attorney in Los Angeles who bucks the justice system every chance she gets. Mohamed comments on how the show deals with its deeply complex protagonist: "The show is through Jax's eyes and her experiences and what she's doing, and as you can see, she has different relationships with different people, so people are getting parts of her. But [in] the show... we get...
Write On with 'Send Help' Co-Creators Jean Elie & Mike Gauyo
September 21, 2022 22:44 - 34 minutes - 47.8 MBFrom Insecure alumni Jean Elie and Mike Gauyo, Send Help follows a first-generation Haitian American (Elie) struggling to overcome the challenges in Hollywood while coming to terms with a recent family tragedy. Gauyo shares his thoughts on how partnering with the Allblk [All Black] Channel benefited their overall storytelling process: "At the core of it, we didn't have to negotiate our Blackness or our culture in order to make the show... There was already a baseline of understanding of why...