How to Write a Movie Script Using AI (With Illustration Examples)

Writing a screenplay used to mean wrestling with formatting rules before you ever got to the story. AI changes the starting line. You describe the idea, and a properly formatted draft comes back, with scene headings, action and dialogue in place.

This guide shows the whole path: what correct format looks like, a real formatted script page, how to revise it, and how to illustrate each scene and compile a film. Every price quoted comes from our pricing page.

Can AI write a screenplay?

Yes. A good AI script tool can write a complete, properly formatted screenplay from a single idea. The best results come when you steer it: you choose the tone, audience, length and ending, and you approve a plan before any scenes are written. The AI handles format so you can focus on story.

What AI doesn't replace is your taste. It drafts fast, but you decide which scenes work and which lines sound like real people. Treat the first draft as raw material.

What does a properly formatted screenplay look like?

A feature screenplay uses a standard industry layout. The Academy's Nicholl Fellowships, a major screenwriting competition, asks for scripts in “standard industry format (12 point Courier)”. Each page is built from a few repeating elements: scene headings, action lines, character names, parentheticals, dialogue and transitions. Readers expect them in that order.

• Scene heading (slugline): INT. or EXT., the place, and the time of day. Example: EXT. MARS - FREIGHT YARD - NIGHT.
• Action: what we see and hear, written in the present tense, in short paragraphs.
• Character name: in capitals, centered above the line they speak.
• Parenthetical: a brief direction under the name, like (grinning). Use them sparingly.
• Dialogue: the spoken line, in a narrower column under the name.
• Extensions: (V.O.) for voiceover and (O.S.) for a voice off screen.
• Transitions: CUT TO:, FADE IN:, used only when they add meaning.

Length matters too. The same Nicholl rules say a feature should be “no shorter than 70 pages and no longer than 160 pages,” and that the “suggested page count is 80 to 125.” If you're writing a short film or a series episode, aim much shorter.

What does an AI-written screenplay page look like?

Below is an example of the kind of page you should expect from a well-guided AI draft. It was written for this guide from a one-line idea, “a heist on Mars that goes wrong,” with a tense tone and a teen-to-adult audience. Notice the sluglines, present-tense action, centered names and short dialogue.

FADE IN:

EXT. MARS - OLYMPUS FREIGHT YARD - NIGHT

Red dust drifts across rows of cargo pods. Two
moons hang low. A rover with its lights off creeps
between the stacks.

INT. ROVER - CONTINUOUS

ADA REYES (40s, ex-miner, steady hands) checks a
cracked tablet. Beside her, TEO (19, too eager)
bounces his knee.

                    TEO
          How long till the guards swap?

                    ADA
          Ninety seconds. Same as the
          last time you asked.

                    TEO
               (grinning)
          Last time, it was two minutes.

Ada doesn't smile. She taps the tablet. A red dot
blinks over POD 117.

                    ADA
          That's ours. In and out.
          Nobody gets clever.

A HEAVY THUD on the roof. They both freeze.

                    VOICE (O.S.)
          Rover nine. You're off route.

Ada kills the engine. Dust ticks against the glass.

                                        CUT TO:

On a real page, names and dialogue sit in fixed columns; here, spaces show that layout. Notice that the page never explains feelings or directs the camera. It shows behavior, like Teo's bouncing knee, and lets the reader infer the rest.

How do you start a movie script with AI?

Start with the idea, not the format. You don't need a logline or a beat sheet. Type one sentence, like “a heist on Mars that goes wrong.” In NFE Studios, the engine reads that idea for tension, stakes and hook, and uses what it finds to ask you a few tailored questions.

The questions shape the script more than anything else. Who is it for? How long should it run? Is it funny, tense or tragic? How should it end? Type answers or tap a suggested option. Open the AI movie script generator to try it.

What is a writing guide, and why approve it first?

A writing guide is a short plan the AI writes from your answers before it drafts the script. It sets out the premise, the main characters, the structure and the ending. Approving it first means you fix the story's direction while changes are cheap, instead of rewriting a finished draft later.

Read the guide like a producer. Is the main character's goal clear? Does the ending pay off the opening? If anything feels vague, change it now. Then the AI writes the full, formatted piece.

How do you revise an AI script?

Ask for Engine notes. The engine reads your draft like an editor and flags where tension sags, where stakes blur, or where a scene doesn't earn its place. You choose which notes to apply. Each revision is saved as a version, so you can compare drafts side by side instead of losing good lines.

• Cut any scene that doesn't change the situation. If nothing is different at the end, it can go.
• Read the dialogue aloud. If a line sounds like an explanation, rewrite it as a reaction.
• Rewrite at least some lines in your own words. It makes the script yours, and it matters for copyright (see below).

How do you illustrate a screenplay with AI?

You set up a cast, pick an art style, and generate one image per scene. The cast is the key step. Each project has its own cast, and each character can have reference images. The illustrator uses that cast on every scene, so your characters look the same from start to finish.

Here's how the example page above would be illustrated. First, you'd add two cast members. Ada gets a reference image of a woman in her 40s with work-worn hands and a dusty jacket. Teo gets a lanky 19-year-old with restless energy. Then you'd pick a style, say painterly sci-fi.

1. Scene 1, EXT. FREIGHT YARD - NIGHT: a wide shot built from the action lines: red dust, rows of cargo pods, two low moons, a dark rover between the stacks. No characters needed.
2. Scene 2, INT. ROVER: a close two-shot inside the cab. Ada holds the cracked tablet, Teo's knee is mid-bounce, and a red dot glows on the screen.
3. Beat, the THUD: an insert of both faces frozen, looking up at the roof.

You never write image prompts by hand. The art direction comes from the scene text and the cast. If a frame is wrong, re-roll that one image. A standard image costs 15 tokens and a high-quality image costs 60.

How do you turn the script into a film?

Animate each illustrated scene into a short video clip, give your characters voices, add music, and compile the clips into one film. When cast members have voices, each character's dialogue is spoken in their own voice. The narrator never reads scene headings like “INT. ROVER” aloud, because those drive the visuals instead.

Here's a worked example using our published prices, for a 30-second film made from the page above. The total is about $5.55. Your numbers will change with clip length and how often you re-roll.

• 6 standard scene images × 15 tokens = 90 tokens
• 6 clips of 5 seconds = 30 seconds × 13 tokens = 390 tokens
• About 3,000 characters of dialogue and narration × 15 per 1,000 = 45 tokens
• Film render: half a minute at 60 tokens per minute = 30 tokens
• Total: 555 tokens, or $5.55 (1 token = $0.01)

When you're done, export the screenplay as a PDF or download the film. For a 30- or 60-second spot, the AI commercial script writer uses the same flow. To illustrate a script you wrote yourself, use illustrate my manuscript.

Who owns a script written with AI?

On our side, pay-as-you-go accounts get commercial rights and unwatermarked exports; the free plan is watermarked with no commercial rights. Copyright registration is a separate question. The U.S. Copyright Office says human creative choices are what count, so your edits, rewrites and arrangement of scenes matter.

“the outputs of generative AI can be protected by copyright only where a human author has determined sufficient expressive elements. This can include situations where a human-authored work is perceptible in an AI output, or a human makes creative arrangements or modifications of the output, but not the mere provision of prompts.”

The same announcement says that “the use of AI to assist in the process of creation or the inclusion of AI-generated material in a larger human-generated work does not bar copyrightability.” In practice: keep your versions, keep your notes, and rewrite in your own voice. This isn't legal advice; talk to a lawyer before a big deal.

What mistakes should you avoid?

The most common mistakes are skipping the questions, accepting the first draft, over-directing the camera and ignoring length. Each one is easy to fix. Spend two minutes on the questions, revise at least once with Engine notes, write what we see rather than camera moves, and check page count against your target.

If you're new to the studio, the guide shows each screen in order, from idea to finished film. Lock the script before you illustrate, so you never pay to redraw a scene you later cut.

One idea in, a formatted, illustrated, narrated film out — without juggling a writing tool, an illustrator and an editor.

Sources

• Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting — About and rules
• U.S. Copyright Office — Copyright Office Releases Part 2 of Artificial Intelligence Report (Jan. 29, 2025)

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