I couldn’t believe it when I saw this, and I hope this means we get a screenplay nomination for Top Gun: Maverick at WGA and then at the Oscars. It’s too bad the announcement couldn’t have dropped before the ballot deadline but here’s hoping. The Scripter Award honors both the source material and the screenplay. Here are the nominees:
The finalist writers for film adaptation are, in alphabetical order by film title:
- Guillermo del Toro, Patrick McHale, and Matthew Robbins for “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” based on the fairy tale “The Adventures of Pinocchio” by Carlo Collodi
- Kazuo Ishiguro for “Living” based on the novella “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” by Leo Tolstoy
- Rebecca Lenkiewicz for “She Said” based on the nonfiction 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 for “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”
The finalist writers for episodic series are, in alphabetical order by series title:
- Peter Morgan, for the episode “Couple 31,” from “The Crown,” based on his stage play “The Audience”
- Taffy Brodesser-Akner for the episode “The Liver,” from “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
- J. T. Rogers for the episode “Yoshino” from “Tokyo Vice,” based on the memoir “Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan” by Jake Adelstein
- Dustin Lance Black for the episode “When God Was Love,” from “Under the Banner of Heaven” based on the nonfiction work by Jon Krakauer
Woman Talking! It needed this after what BAFTA did.
Top Gun: Maverick had terrible, expository dialogue. Every line coming out of Monica Barbaro’s mouth was embarrassing.
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The Scripter used to match closely with Adapted Screenplay, then in 2018 it suddenly stopped. Weird.
USC? Well, I hope the US (United States [of America]) C‘s (sees) Top Gun 2 honored with a well-deserved Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay alongside Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, A Man Called Otto, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, and The Good Nurse
Well, it did a good job adapting the original film’s framework and parts of Star Wars amid a bevy of military movie cliches.
I just cannot grasp how the woman who in the past has championed some deserving lesser seen movies is somehow acting like a big-budget blockbuster everyone knew would be a hit is somehow a “miracle defying the odds.”
But, it’s technically not about adapting the “original film”. The flimsy rationale is that they “adapted” the 35 year old magazine article.
…That’s even dumber. I mean, Paramount publicists aren’t gushing for this movie as much as Sasha is and they’re paid for that.
It is as I posted earlier.
What’s next? Avengers VIII gets nominated because it’s “based” on a 60 year old comic book?
Logan, Black Panther, Wonder Woman, and Iron Man were all Scripter nominees.
Women Talking, She Said and Living looking solid for their nominations – super thrilled about that.
I think we all know Top Gun has no business here, but I am very happy to see She Said–one of the best scripts, and films, of the year. And it goes without saying, Women Talking, the most poignant and meticulously crafted of any screenplay this year.
Glad to see support for She Said (Haven’t read original book but Ms Lenkiewicz’s script is exquisite) and Women Talking.
question being… what wasn’t ellegible?
Finished The Menu and… it is pure Buñuel. Echoes from The Exterminating Angel are recognisable, for example (do the guest really try to escape?, even the Chef directly addresses that question)
To the first question, at least all sequels that aren’t based on something else than movies (Glass Onion and Avatar: The Way of Water) and films that aren’t in English (All Quiet on the Western Front) weren’t eligible.
Setting aside the mediocrity of Top Gun II’s script, the fact that it was eligible while something like Knives Out II wasn’t is ridiculous.
Holding up a 35 year old magazine article as the ‘literary source’ for eligibility is absurd. As if Maverick’s screenwriters went back to that old article when they were writing the script. Come on, USC.
And, I thought writers were supposed to be wicked smhaht
It’s amazing how the same simple news evokes the same “I can’t believe it” reaction in me but in the absolute opposite direction in terms of joy (I was hoping Maverick mania could die down and more awards givers would realized the baseless hype behind it).
This site should consider renaming itself Top Gun Daily.
if it wasn’t so good, I would be complaining as well… but it is a truly great film – at my surprise!
I prefer love of movies to be slightly more in proportion.
Lol, you’re acting like the site nominated Top Gun when it was USC that did that.
Look at the bigger picture, chuckles.
I already know Sasha is campaigning for Top Gun. Your joke just didn’t really make any sense with the current topic, chuckles.
All the other commenters’ frustration with the fixation this site’s proprieter has with Top Gun, and the overtly political reasons she’s citing for that support is where the joke came from. Never seen you here before. But you’re getting blocked so I don’t have to see you again.
So basically the only notable thing here is that The Whale missed a nomination
So basically the only notable thing here is that The Whale missed a nomination
God I wish WGA was before Oscars this year – if top gun got in there I would probably predict it for the nom. I’m torn right now. I’m fairly confident Women Talking and Living off this list are getting in and I am unlikely to predict Pinocchio (though it absolutely could get in) and I am almost certainly predicting The Whale.
However, those last 2 slots are really hard. She Said looks pretty good, as silly as it would be (sorry Sasha) Top Gun could very easily be one of them but then I also feel like I want to put All Quiet on the Western Front and Glass Onion on there. That’s really 4 films for 2 slots and I don’t know what to do!
I am currently predicting Glass Onion, Women Talking, She Said, The Whale & Pinocchio. Living looks strong but I’m predicting a snub for both screenplay & actor. Maybe I’ll change it after the BAFTAs today.
I don’t get how the Avatar movies get memed for being macho cliches and story rehashes, while this movie about the poor underdog United States military up against the almighty power of ‘rogue state’, with more advanced planes than the United States, sending its hero in a starfighter to launch torpedoes up the Death Star’s butt while seducing the hot waitress owning a bar where zoomers sing Great Balls of Fire is taken seriously.
Like neither should be getting Screenplay but I’d give it to Avatar way before Top Gun.
While hardly original, at least Avatar tried something different. Top Gun is literally the same movie as the other one with better FX.
The screenplay informed the cast and crew all about liking airplanes, saying good lines, and having fun. If the screenplay did not do this, the entire cast and crew would have been at a loss regarding how to entertain everyone.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. As someone who worked on the marketing for this film, the macho BS is on a whole different level, and not just in the script. For an industry struggling to stay relevant in the face of diversity on all fronts, Hollywood sure fell in-line behind this cisgender white male-driven dinosaur of a movie. Fun flick? Absolutely! Best Screenplay of the year? With zingers like “You got some balls stick jockey” and ‘It’s not the plane, it’s the pilot” how can the white old men of the Academy resist? Sorry… I just threw up a bit in my mouth a little.
Because the characters are actually fleshed out and complex as it doesn’t only focus on pointless visuals. I’d rather have a cliche plot with great characters over a great plot with below average characters (unless it’s Inception because the movie is great). The scene with Maverick and Iceman are what makes the movie worthwhile. There was nothing in Avatar that made me care for Jake Sully and his family.
I believe Glass Onion was ineligible here since it is not based on a “printed work”, but rather, finds itself eligible at the Oscars for Adapted since its a sequel. With that in mind, the one big miss here is Samuel D. Hunter for The Whale. Ironic, since that film has been surging lately.
So 2 films here may be bumped for both Glass Onion and The Whale.
No big surprise considering the “weak” adapted screenplay field this season.
The Whale will bump Maverick out come Oscar time…!
Watch out for Living, which seems to be picking up steam.
It’s definitely in.
I’ve said it over and over, remaking Ikiru took some substantial stones. I know Kurosawa has been adapted many times over, but THAT one always struck me as kind of untouchable.
Living is not far off being an adapted lock at this stage. It’s not winning but I would be surprised by a miss for it
God The Whale is worse than Top Gun so I’m torn about that outcome