2023 USC Scripter Awards Finalists – Best Adapted Screenplay Preview

In a year when the contenders for Best Adapted Screenplay are still unclear, USC Libraries, which is naming the finalists for the 35th annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards, offers further insight into which screenplays stand out the most. The award, which honors the writers of the year’s most successful film and episodic adaptations, as well as the writers of the works on which they are based, is the main bellwether of the Oscar race, as the winners overlapped for Best Adapted Screenplay. Winners from 2011 to 2019. Its voting base is a mix of academics, industry professionals and critics.

As expected, Sarah Polley’s screenplay for Women Talking, an adaptation of Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel for which the filmmaker has already won several critical awards, is among the finalists for this year’s Scripter Awards. Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro’s screenplay “Living” (an adaptation of Tolstoy’s novel) and Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s screenplay “She Said” (an adaptation of Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s 2019 non-fiction book of the same name) are two finalists that were also recognized. throughout the award season.

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However, the last two finalists read much more like wildcards. The script by Peter Craig, Ehren Kruger, Justin Marks, Christopher McQuarrie and Eric Warren was an early favorite for the ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ sequel, which seemed to be overshadowed by newer scripts, while Guillermo del Toro, Patrick McHale and Matthew Robbins’ ” Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” script, a twist on Carlo Collodi’s iconic fairy tale, is a relative newcomer to a competition that hasn’t seemed to build steam yet.

The two finalists for the Scripter Awards indicate that the nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay may be slightly different than expected due to some omissions. Both front runners of the competition at the same time, Samuel D. Hunter’s play adaptation “The Whale” did not make it, while Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” series “The Glass Onion” was deemed ineligible (again, finalists must be based on a literary work). Although voting for the Oscar nominations is now closed, Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise,” Lena Dunham’s “Catherine, Called Birdy” and David Kajganich’s “Bones and All” are good examples where bubble contenders could have used a boost, especially because it’s eligible for a 2023 WGA Awards nomination (while Scripter Award finalists “Living” and “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” are not).

Keith Bernstein/Netflix

The 35th annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards also has a television category. Not only is this year the first time that Netflix’s hit “The Crown” has been recognized by the awards body, newcomers “Slow Horses” (Apple TV+) and “Fleishman Is in Trouble” (FX), which have yet to they didn’t manage to break through the Emmys, they are finalists here as well.

The 2023 Scripter selection committee selected the finalists and 67 television adaptations. The 2023 committee is chaired by Howard Rodman, USC professor and former president of the Writers Guild of America, West.

USC Libraries will announce the winning authors and screenwriters at a black-tie ceremony on Saturday, March 4, 2023, in the historic Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library at USC, marking the awards’ big personal comeback. , if the COVID safety protocols allow it.

Finalist writers of the film adaptation, in alphabetical order by film title:

Guillermo del Toro, Patrick McHale and Matthew Robbins for “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” based on Carlo Collodi’s “The Adventures of Pinocchio”

Kazuo Ishiguro for the film “Life”, based on the short story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” by Leo Tolstoy

Rebecca Lenkiewicz for “She Said,” based on the non-fiction book “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement” by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey.

Peter Craig, Ehren Kruger, Justin Marks, Christopher McQuarrie and Eric Warren
“Top Gun: Maverick” based on characters from the 1983 “California” magazine article “Top Guns” by Ehud Yonay

Screenwriter Sarah Polley and novelist Miriam Toews for “Women Talking.”

Finalist writers of the episodic series in alphabetical order according to the title of the series:

Peter Morgan for “The Crown” episode “Couple 31”, based on his stage play “The Audience”.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner for “The Liver” episode of “Fleishman Is in Trouble” based on her book of the same name

Will Smith for the episode “Failure’s Contagious” from “Slow Horses”, based on the novel by Mick Herron

JT Rogers for the Tokyo Vice episode “Yoshino,” based on Jake Adelstein’s memoir “Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan.”

Dustin Lance Black for the episode “When God Was Love” from “Under the Banner of Heaven” based on the non-fiction work of Jon Krakauer

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