Honoring Adapted Screenplay – USC Scripter Preview

The USC Scripter is an award that is handed out for both the source material and the screenplay.  It is judged upon by industry professionals, scholars, journalists and critics (names after the jump) and has a decent track record with Oscar and the WGA in the adapted categories.  Their nominations will be announced tomorrow morning at 5am.

The Scripter acknowledges the source material in addition to the screenplay but they expanded their rules so it is no longer just a book but can be a magazine article, play or graphic novel.

As you can see by the below chart, to win the Oscar in adapted it helps to at least be nominated by the WGA and the Scripter.  In the Scripter’s history, no Oscar winning adapted screenplay has ever won without one or the other or both.

The adapted screenplay generally, though certainly not always, controls the Oscar Best Picture race as well, meaning that the strongest candidates for Best Picture usually show up in either of the screenplay categories.

It is usually easy to spot the standout screenplays by this time of year.  Between three and five of them will come from the WGA nominations. This year, four WGA nominees were nominated for Oscar and one was not. I am going to guess that at least three of these will also hit the Scripter, and those would be Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook and Life of Pi. The other two are less certain – Argo’s source material might not be beefy enough for the Scripter, but Lucy Alibar’s play on Beasts of the Southern Wild might be. But what other adaptations might find their way in?

The adaptation that strikes me most but probably won’t find its way here would be Cloud Atlas – the sprawling, breathtaking, gorgeous mess of a film had its heartbeat in its adaptation of a fine novel.  Similarly, Anna Karenina seems like a very good bet for the Scripter, being that it’s, well, Tolstoy and all. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a possibility, as is Skyfall (could happen).

As for the winner, there really probably isn’t any script that could beat Tony Kushner’s adaptation of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book. First off, how do you not award Goodwin? Secondly, Kushner? Its biggest challenger, I would have to say, would be Life of Pi – beloved novel, beloved film – how do you choose?  But before we get to the winner we have to get to the nominees and they will be announced very early tomorrow at 5am.

Their winners will be handed out February 9, 2013.

won WGA | won Oscar

2011

Panel:
Naomi Foner, Co-Chair
Howard Rodman, Co-Chair

Albert Berger
Robert Bloomingdale
Leo Braudy
Ted Braun
Michael Chabon
Dean Elizabeth Daley
Jack Epps, Jr.
Mark Fergus
Geoffrey Fletcher
Daryle Ann Giardino
Kaui Hart Hemmings
Nick Hornby
Gale Anne Hurd
Lawrence Kasdan
Nicholas Kazan
Chris Keyser
Jonathan Lethem
Claudia Lewis
Leonard Maltin
Mike Medavoy
Gail Mutrux
Michael Ondaatje
Hawk Ostby
Dean Madeline Puzo
Dean Catherine Quinlan
Eric Roth
Michelle Satter
Tom Schulman
Brad Simpson
Mona Simpson
Glenn Sonnenberg
Wesley Strick
Robin Swicord
Anne Thompson
Jennifer Todd
Suzanne Todd
Kenneth Turan
Josh Welsh
Erin Cressida Wilson