Final Draft Goes Collaborative In Version 9

Final Draft is here in Cannes to host daily workshops and seminars about its software and screenwriting/filmmaking in general, and to announce plans for a new version of Final Draft 9 to be launched at Cannes 2011.

Version 9 of Final Draft will unveil Final Draft Connect. “Right now the script sits on your computer and your computer alone,” CEO Marc Madnick explains to Screen. “Final Draft will be server based in the future you’ll have the ability if you want to share your scripts with who you want to share it with. And can store your work on the server. The best thing will be having collaborating tools so that multiple people can work on the same document.”

V9 will also include versioning tracking so that a project can keep tabs on exactly who wrote what, and when, and can access earlier versions of a screenplay. “We’ve done focus groups on it, it’s exactly what the filmmaking community wants,” Madnick adds.

Plans are underway that the sharing could mean the project could be accessed simultaneously by various people across the world. There will probably be no limit to the number of parties that can work on a single project, which will be established by the project’s creator.

Final Draft 9 will also be mobile for the first time, for emailing scripts.

At the Final Draft booth in the Palais, filmmakers and screenwriters are invited to stop by for a daily workshop about the software at 11 am. The company will also be hosting a series of seminars. Final Draft, with its European reseller Movieisoft, is a partner with Cannes Cinefondation.

Madnick notes that the US-based company has been “expanding all throughout Europe in past few years by leaps and bounds.” The software is an English-language platform but menus are available for users to write in 16 languages.

“We’re now in our 20th year, and here in Cannes most of the movies we’ve confirmed have used Final Draft,” says Madnick. “We know for a fact that the Robin Hood team are Final Draft users.”