Latest Blogs

Long title… I know. Should have gotten AI to do it. Lol. You've probably seen it by now. A 15-second AI-generated video of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise throwing punches on a rooftop, conjured by Oscar-nominated Irish director Ruairi Robinson using ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 tool. It looks polished. It looks cinematic. And it sent Hollywood into the kind of collective panic attack usually reserved for opening weekend box office disasters. Screenwriter Rhett Reese, co-writer of Deadpool & Wolverine an...

You've written a screenplay. You've polished it. You've maybe even gotten some positive feedback from friends, writing groups, online communities, or Stage 32's industry readers or execs. You feel good about what you've written and you're confident in your writing. Now what? Most writers face the same impossible catch-22: You need industry validation to get meetings, but you need meetings to get industry validation. Our contests at Stage 32 exist to break that cycle. And we do things fundame...

The New Gold Rush of Book Adaptations? Hollywood is going back to books and it's paying off. HAIL MARY, THE HOUSEMAID, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, VLADIMIR, PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION. The adaptations are coming fast and from every corner of the literary world. It would be easy to just assume studios are playing it safe, that they're leaning on proven IP, built-in fanbases, and the validation of an existing readership to reduce risk in an uncertain market. And there's truth in that. The numbers back...

I am proud to share an exciting milestone for the film industry in Mexico: CANACINE, the National Chamber of the Film Industry, has entered into a strategic partnership with Stage 32 to open up Stage 32’s certification program to Mexican filmmakers. This collaboration represents a powerful step forward, not only for Mexico’s creative community, but also for the global audiovisual industry looking toward Mexico as a premier destination for film and television production. Mexico: A World-Class...

If you've been paying attention to the conversation around prestige TV lately, you've heard about HEATED RIVALRY. The Canadian sports romance series, created, written, and directed by Jacob Tierney for Crave and streaming on HBO Max in the U.S., has taken the world by storm. Based on Rachel Reid's beloved Game Changers novel series, it follows two rival professional hockey players whose on-ice animosity conceals a passionate secret romance. It stars Hudson Williams, Connor Storrie, François Ar...

Happy Sunday, Creative Army! Let’s kick things off with a huge shoutout to everyone who has already jumped into this month’s Introduce Yourself Weekend. Thousands of creatives from around the world are connecting, sharing their stories, and building relationships that can lead to collaborations, opportunities, and lifelong friendships. If you haven’t made your introduction yet, you still have time. Head over to the Introduce Yourself Lounge before the weekend wraps. Be bold. Introduce yourse...

I've worked with a lot of big-name talent, developed movies from best-selling books from Stephen King to Ann Rule, and optioned and developed a few Opera Book Club picks, including Songs In Ordinary Time, Jewel (won the Humanitas Award), and Midwives. I have worked with and developed projects for Warner Brothers, Sony/Tri-Star/Columbia, Mark Harmon's Wings Productions, and more over the past 30 years of my career. Over the years, I have worked with hundreds of screenwriters in all stages of th...

It's been more than a month since WIFTI chapters from around the world gathered in Adare, Ireland, for the 2026 WIFTI Summit, International Women's Day has come and gone, and now we’re almost at the end of Women's History Month. But what have we actually learned? What stuck? What still stings? And where do we go from here? This month, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the ideas and conversations that surround this month and ask you to reflect too. Because the truth is, reflection withou...

Happy Thursday, Stage 32 Community! As we head into Spring 2026, there’s something I want to ask you: Are you moving forward with intention… or waiting for the “right moment” to start? If you’ve been feeling stuck, unsure of your next step, or like you’re creating in a vacuum, I want to personally invite you to this month’s Stage 32 Community Open House. This will be our final FREE Open House event until this summer, so you don't want to miss it. Wednesday, March 25th at 12:00 pm PT!...

Mandates come and go. But what's in this week? Horror is IN. And it's not just me saying it, it's the Academy. I know every cinephile pundit in town is going to have a take on what mattered and what's going to shape the culture going forward, but for the first time in a long time, the Academy Awards didn't feel like same old, same old. As a lifelong horror and monster movie aficionado, I was rooting hard for SINNERS, WEAPONS, and FRANKENSTEIN…and I certainly wasn't disappointed. Bigger bud...