The USC Scripter theoretically gives their prize to both the original source material and the eventual script. The big surprise here is no Carol – which would have honored both the novel by Patricia Highsmith and the Phyllis Nagy script. These are the judges. Both The Martian and The Big Short are really the strongest here, with Brooklyn being a very strong contender to take them both. Here are the nominees:
FILM
The Big Short
Screenwriters Adam McKay and Charles Randolph, adapted from Michael Lewis’s nonfiction work “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine”
Paramount Pictures and W.W. Norton
Brooklyn
Novelist Colm Tóibín and screenwriter Nick Hornby
Fox Searchlight and Viking
The End Of The Tour
Screenwriter Donald Margulies, adapted from David Lipsky’s memoir “Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace”
A24 and Broadway Books
The Martian
Novelist Andy Weir and screenwriter Drew Goddard
Twentieth Century Fox and Crown Publishing Group
Room
Emma Donoghue for the novel and screenplay
A24 and Little, Brown and Company
TV
Game Of Thrones
Screenwriters David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, for the episode “Hardhome,” adapted from the fantasy series “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George R. R. Martin
HBO and Bantam
The Leftovers
Damon Lindelof and Jacqueline Hoyt for the episode “Axis Mundi”, based on the novel by Tom Perrotta
HBO and St. Martin’s Press
The Man In The High Castle
Frank Spotnitz for the episode “The New World,” based on the novel by Philip K. Dick
Amazon and Putnam
Masters Of Sex
Michelle Ashford, for the episode “Full Ten Count,” based on the biography by Thomas Maier, “Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love”
Showtime and Basic Books
Show Me A Hero
Screenwriters William F. Zorzi and David Simon, based on the nonfiction book by Lisa Belkin
HBO and Little, Brown and Company
Why is Steve Jobs absent from this list? Sorkin deserves another Oscar for what he did with that script. Otherwise…put me up for The Big Short, which would be my favorite adapted screenplay if Steve Jobs didn’t exist in 2015.
I hope Brooklyn takes it, but I stopped caring what they thought when they passed over “Lincoln.” That’s one of the most inexcusable decisions and one of the few of any awards body that I am actually angry about. (along with the Academy’s snub of Social Network, Fincher, Viola Davis, Zero Dark Thirty and Inside Llewyn Davis) Lots of times I pontificate about awards and really don’t care; those I did care about.
Although it isn’t the frontrunner by any means, surprised there’s no mention of Steve Jobs here – Sorkin showed up and won for The Social Network back in 2011.
At least no Mad Max stuff here….
Small victories.
It just wasn’t a very faithful adaptation of Mad Max: Fury Road the Novel.
this award is for the novelist and the screenwriter. I think Brooklyn is the best in terms of novel and adaptation.
End of the Tour beating out Carol is a pretty sick joke.
Tell me about it. One features two obnoxious man-childs who see women as nothing more than vessels for their own infantile sexual expression. The other is a mature, incisive account of forbidden love between two women, two gay women!
Obnoxious man-children are Hollywood’s most tiresome bread basket.
Here’s an interesting stat — they have never given this award to a person who both wrote the book and the solely wrote the screenplay.** Also — a woman hasn’t won since 1995 (when Emma Thompson won for Sense and Sensibility).
Uphill climb, Emma Donoghue!
**Fannie Flagg won in 1991 but she co-wrote the screenplay to Fried Green Tomatoes with Carol Sobieski. Michael Ondaatje also won for English Patient but again that was co-written with Anthony Minghella.
The End of the Tour is a great and inspired choice.
So, is this between Room and The Big Short?
It’s between The Big Short and The Big Short.
Sasha: “The Martian and The Big Short are really the strongest here.” But Martian is infinitely more complex and interesting, and doesn’t rely on comedy gimmicks.
Sasha cont: “With Brooklyn being a very strong contender to take them both”.
Anything’s possible.
I’m a huge fan of Nick Hornby the novelist, but not as much of Nick Hornby the screenwriter. BROOKLYN’s script felt forced at times, especially during the second half.
Well the only other film adaptation of his book i have seen is About A Boy and that definitely could have done with Hornby as the scriptwriter.
An Education was fantastic. Wild was okay. Brooklyn is better than Wild but I hoped I’d like it more than I do.
Oh na i saw Wild I didnt know it was by him. Will check out An Education tho.
can someone show me something clever or great in the Room screenplay? please. I want to see the light.
The End of the Tour inclusion is nonsense, especially since they left off Carol. They just wanted to have David Foster Wallace on their list. However I kind of think this is where Brooklyn has a shot. The book is incredibly admired (a near classic) and Nick Hornby the most distinguished of this group (if you discount that Donald Margulies has no shot.).
Absolutely thrilled that The End of the Tour got a nomination. It must be the most underrated movie this year.
Adam McKay is gonna win oscar. Crazy.
McKay has as much chance to win an Oscar for best director as I do. And that’s nil.
screenplay tho.
Ugh, that formed-in-comedy handful of gimmicks known as the script for The Big Short? Ugh!
I don’t understand how a bad Director like Mckay, with bad films is even consider as a possibility.
🙂
I read and enjoyed the books of both The Big Short and The Martian.
The adaptation of The Martian is incomparably more comprehensive and, for lack of a better word, “artistic”. Goddard took a slim lead character and made him a fully realized human being. He navigated the almost impossible territory between laugh out loud humor (which was never forced because it grew naturally out of situation), drama, and nail biting suspense. He made one person narration sing by skillful intercutting.
The Big Short has an over reliance on tricks – fast dialogue to make the actors “sound smart”. Famous faces making “guest appearances”. And the breaking on the fourth wall is simply a gimmick.
In terms of true talent and artistry from a writing perspective, no contest.
Well, no Carol sucks but I think this means we will see Brooklyn come Oscar noms. I still think Carol gets a lot of noms…
Excuse me? Room is here! Interesting to see End of the Tour show up somewhere.
Yes i removed it. I still don’t think it’s as solid for a number of categories like others do. Brooklyn is looking stronger than Room is at the moment. Sadly, all three of Carol, Brooklyn and Room should all be up for Best Pic but there is a chance none of them are! One will get in. Two MIGHT get in. No way three get in. As I’ve said, there is a movie that is gonna get Inside Llewyn Davis’d this year where the reviews are off the charts, wins a lot of awards prior only to be left at the altar come Oscar noms morning. I think it’s Room and it could be Carol which would be a crying shame.
it would be weird – although not unprecedented for Larson to get in for best actress but no Rrom. Sad, too. Shame for Brooklyn to get in because it’s the most palatable “girl movie”. And, as I’ve said before, Brooklyn is so whitey-white-white. And that’s a white girl talking.
”Brooklyn” got nominated fair and square as did ”Room”. No point in making out that ”Brooklyn” isn’t worthy. Many see its worth!
I’m saying Brooklyn is the most palatable, least interesting, choice of the three. That seems obvious. Doesn’t mean I hate it. But it does smack of a cloying Oscar-baity-ness. Not as much as Danish Girl by a long way, though.
”Brooklyn” is far from Oscar bait. It wasn’t made with that intention. ”The Danish Girl” on the other hand. Do your research before commenting.
I haven’t read interviews with the producers so I don’t know what was on their minds. Like I said, maybe it was honorable, maybe it was not. I’m not claiming to know.
Many people who’ve come to this country can relate to the experience of the main character. I also have an Irish friend who was apprehensive about seeing the movie, but she was relieved to see that the director and screenwriter got so many things right about her country. Especially the homesickness. The movie has universal value. This is why audiences have responded. The script was also very well-structured, with an excellently poised turning point. And then Nick Hornby really knew how to bring the movie home, expanding the story beyond the book. This is why the judges chose it over other scripts.
A really ignorant remark. Character was an Irish immigrant. What were you expecting? Read the book. Get an education.
There are lots of really good novelists who judge the awards. And it’s not necessary to trash a chosen work because the judges didn’t choose the movie you liked better.
I think it’s perfectly honorable to point out that one reason people send historical movies to the Oscar playpen is to avoid uncomfortable modern truths. Doesn’t mean it’s not a good movie on its own merits. I’m just saying that the worldview is constricted, perhaps intentionally, perhaps honorably. But either way, constricted.
right? i read that response and was like ‘uhhhhh…’
Carol will most likely now receive acting & tech nominations.
Blaming Anne Thompson for the no Carol.
I don’t understand. Carol has the best screenplay adaptation this year. The Big Short’s screenplay is shit compare to Carol.
Brooklyn is by far the best adaptation. But Carol deserved a nomination
as an adaptation, Brooklyn is fine, but there’s very little art to what is on the page. Nagy transforms The Price of Salt and narrowed it down to a perfect script that is rich with unspoken & spoken moments. It’s truly brilliant.
“there’s very little art to what is on the page”. I do not agree.
The structure of that screenplay is kind of off. Where’s the tension? It’s between the husband and the wife, not the lovers. And where was the passion (not the screenwriter’s problem).
Maybe you should see the movie again and read it for what it is. It is not a simple love story and it is not mainly about passion in terms of I want a man or the other man. It is about perception, distance, self discovery, opportunities, growing up understanding where your future should unfold, it is about becoming an immigrant, about the time when you cannot hide anymore into your childhood and you must take your life in your own hands, it’s about making choices that are not heroic but just human, it is about selfishness too, and sisterhood, and family, about what is home, Brooklyn is an unforgettable movie about the science fiction of living a life somewhere and at a specific time on this planet.
Brooklyn is a fantastic book–the movie though very good is much less subtle. In the book, it was not obvious what choice Eilis would make in the end. The movie could have ended only the way it did.
What, is she a judge? Why? For some reason I thought it was only erudite literature professors who happened to be cinephiles. Now I don’t care.
idk she’s on the list that the post links to, so is Kenneth Turan.
Kenny Turan?!?! How is this thing relevant?
It’s not relevant. It’s revenant.
Sigh.
Did Anne bag on the Carol script? That’s a shame. She’s done some great interviews around Carol.
no I was joking
heh heh.
remember that time the USC Scripter judges passed up the book and screenplay by two Pulitzer Prize winners (Doris Kearns Goodwin and Tony Kushner)…
… and chose instead the movie that cooked up a lot of fabricated bullshit about hollywood saving the hostages?
OK, you reminded me……Argo in over Lincoln was laughable. There’s always something laughable. With this though, I’m starting to see that since “women” can only have one token spot in general that the masses are going with Brooklyn which is the easier, traditional, milquetoast girl discovering herself and falling in love (with a boy) story. Because God forbid they both be considered.
And the universal immigrant story
But wasn’t the immigration issue something that came up AFTER the movie was written? It wasn’t like the movie was created to address that issue, right?
It still makes people think it is “timely” since immigration is currently a big issue…..though immigration of brown people so really the triumphant white lady immigrant doesn’t really correlate, but they can make themselves think it does and that somehow makes it “important” right now.
There’s Jonas Cuaron’s movie coming out this year I think.
Remember that time they gave it to A Beautiful Mind over In the Bedroom? Or The Hours over Adaptation? God…I’m getting depressing just thinking about it. 🙁
Both A Beautiful Mind and The Hours were deserving winners in my opinion.
The Big Short is not missing a single nom. I think it is the frontrunner now.
Well, Boyhood didn’t missed anything either and still didn’t win.
Boyhood missed plenty. It was Birdman that didn’t miss anything.
Oh please, Boyhood got in a every single awards show. They even got editing at the Oscars something Birdman “supposedly” needed to win Best Picture.
being a frontrunner doesn’t mean end up winning, we already know that.
Haha, except director everywhere so far. But I guess that doesn’t count, because it’s The Big Short and it’s the cool thing these days to say it’s ‘the new frontrunner’…
No Carol. No Steve Jobs!?!?
No Mad Max?? It is finished and has no chance anymore! #RIP
Um, since the Scripter I believe is only for Adapted screenplays, Mad Max wouldn’t qualify. I believe Revenant is the one that got sort of nicked here.
Exactly. The thing is that Mad Max’s haters are always finding something to dismiss it.
I was mocking the people who were saying its chances took a blow for not getting Screenplay last year.
You mean ‘last night’?…
Probably yeah. I was drunk.
Ah I had no idea. LOL the Revenant.
Writing is not Mad Max’s greatness anyways.
Carol is done in this category, it missed at BFCA, Globes, and now USC. and would miss at WGA if Brooklyn and Room were eligible
Wow……I just got nothing else to say at this point.
Delighted to see ”Brooklyn” and ”The Big Short” on list!