Nominated for three Academy Awards®, Flee tells the extraordinary true story of a man, Amin, on the verge of marriage which compels him to reveal his hidden past for the first time. Filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen talks to Write On about the process behind making the documentary/animated feature: “It is about finding out when we go into the memories, which ones do you really want to see. Which one of those are kind of scenic? And when is it more about the emotion? It's really about trying to show as much as you can instead of just telling it.”

 

Jonas goes on to give advice to not only other creatives but also himself: “I would definitely say that I should trust my voice more. Not try to look too much at what other people do, but really trust what I have inside. And then just to surround yourself with people that could challenge you in a good way.”

 

Promised Land is an epic, generation-spanning ABC drama about two Latinx families vying for wealth and power in California's Sonoma Valley. Showrunner and creator Matt Lopez tells Write On: “The show… tackles immigration, assimilation, what it means to chase the American dream, what it means to achieve the American dream, and the costs that are sometimes extracted from us when we try and achieve it or maintain it.”

 

Matt goes on to talk about how a writer’s room works and gives advice to up-and-coming TV scribes: “I would say the most frequent advice I give to writers is... if you haven't already developed a thick skin, develop one. The barriers to entry in screenwriting, television writing - they're extremely high, and it can be hard to bust in. But if you keep working and keep at it, I do believe eventually your talent will get recognized.”

 

When a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands, a wild card CIA agent joins forces with three international agents on a lethal mission to retrieve it, while staying a step ahead of a mysterious woman who's tracking their every move in this action thriller directed by Simon Kinberg. Co-Writer Theresa talks about transitioning from playwriting to screenwriting: "I think you really have to have tremendous respect for the form of a screenplay. It's different from theatre in that… language needs to do less. One of the things you have to figure out is how to deliver character and movement of emotion in gesture."

 

Theresa goes on to discuss what it’s been like for her working as a female writer: "I started at a different time where, as challenging as it can be to be a woman in this industry, it was considerably worse. You felt, a lot of times, that you didn't have any options, you just had to put up with it, and it was extraordinarily painful and spiritually challenging, and I feel like the consequences of that stay with you longer than you think they will."

 

Cyrano is a musical drama starring Peter Dinklage based on screenwriter Erica Schmidt’s stage play of the same name. Erica talks to Write On about transitioning from writing for the theater to screenwriting: "It was challenging because I didn't know the form, and I had to really learn the form. It was really exciting as well; I love movies, I've always loved movies, and I never would have started out with something so big so it was kind of a great way to jump off the board and into the pool."

 

Erica goes on to talk about the involvement of the band The National in contributing music for the project: "I listened to [The National's] music over and over again as I was writing the play, and that kind of necessitated making the language less and less to allow the music to be the heartbeat of the piece, but then when it was going to be a screenplay, I had a lot more freedom."

 

Directed by Denzel Washington and starring Michael B. Jordan, A Journal for Jordan is based on the true story of First Sergeant Charles Monroe King, a soldier deployed to Iraq who begins to keep a journal of love and advice for his infant son. Screenwriter Virgil Williams tells Write On: "It's really quite a remarkable love story… I used to say to Denzel [Washington], 'Look at us. We're doing all this work, all because these people loved each other.' That's astounding to me.”

 

Virgil goes on to give advice on forging a screenwriting career: "Work on your craft all the time. Make it part of what you are, and it doesn't mean that you're sitting at the keyboard all the time; the better part of writing is listening - listening to the way that people talk…  listening to your director, listening to your instinct, listening to your story because your story will tell you what it needs and wants."