The Writers Guild of America just announced their nominees for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay of the year. Most of the top Oscar contenders made the list: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, Frost/Nixon, The Dark Knight, Doubt, and The Wrestler. With Wall-E ineligible for the WGA, the Coen brothers’ Burn After Reading and Tom McCarthy’s The Visitor filled out the original-screenplay slate, while Rachel Getting Married and Gran Torino failed to get noticed. On the adapted side, the two most obvious omissions here are The Reader and Revolutionary Road, both of which take a substantial hit by not making the cut. Their only consolation: Yesterday they both landed on the American Society of Cinematophers list alongside Button, Slumdog, and The Dark Knight. Below are the WGA lists.
Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
Slumdog Millionaire
Original Screenplay
Burn After Reading
Milk
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
The Visitor
The Wrestler
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why is wall-e ineligible? frankly, its a great film.
How is Dark Knight an “adapted screenplay”? There was never a comic book called “Dark Knight” that had that story (DKR just has a similar title, otherwise it’s totally different).
Wall-E is a Spectacular Film but it is not qualified because it is an Animated Feature film.
Great news for The Dark Knight, this will truly boast its chances for becoming a major Oscar contender.
It will be interesting if it makes the DGA list on Thursday.
They skip over Jenny Lumet for “Rachel Getting Married”???? BOO!!!!
Where is Gran Torino?!!!!WTF. Burn After Reading was absolutely horrible. The Coen brothers need to stay away from comedy unless it involves Jeff Bridges and stolen rug, because they just aren’t funny.
Vicky Christina Barcelona was not that good, and the the only reason Milk gets a nomination is to fill the obligatory gay theme movie quota. Sweet!
Yeah, why is WALL-E ineligible? Is it because it’s animated or because the first 30 minutes has no “dialogue” per se?
Could the omissions of The Reader and Rev Road be detrimental to Winslet’s chances at a double nomination at the Oscars? I hope not.
Glad “Rachel” got snubbed. But “Burt After Reading”…really?
why the heck is Wall-E not eligible for this too? This is getting ridiculous how many of these guilds do not allow Wall-E to compete in the big categories. Rules have to be changed.
what about synechdoche, new york? i thought it was probably the most well crafted (perhaps because of its incredibly meta-fictional structure)and made absolute sense out of chaos.
I’m pretty much guessing here but I think Wall-E is ineligible because the writers are not guild members. At least that’s why Andrew Stanton is ineligible for a DGA nomination.
Dave, or anyone – Do you think that the WGA would ever consider to make animated films eligible? Sure, they’re not conventional, but they DO have a screenplay. And in the past decade, they’ve gained relevance. The Academy has recognized the growing of the genre by adding an entire category, and why shouldn’t the WGA follow suit?
I do not understand why The Reader and especially Revolutionary Road are being snubbed left and right. Revolutionary Road is a better film then all of these nominees.
dan, its adapted, becuase its based on material previously published like Batman. sure there’s no dark knight comic, but there have been plenty of batman comics, so thats why its adapted
With so few well written movies that came out in 2008, the Writers Guild of America needed to have more than 5 movies each in their two categories. I can think of 5 more movies for adapted screenplay (like “The Reader) as well as original screenplay (like “Rachel Getting Married). Too bad 10 can’t be the new 5.
“obligatory gay theme movie quota”???? wow- someone has their head up in their a$$
anyway- the real travesty here is Revolutionary Road being snubbed for what is one of the major triumphs of the movie… I personally wouldve rather it there that Slumdog Millionaire– guess they had to fill the “obligatory indian themed movie” lol
Yay ‘Dark Knight’!
Wall-E is not eligible because animation does not fall under WGA jurisdiction (despite the WGA’s best efforts). Animation writers are paid under the IATSE Local 839, aka The Animation Guild.
Animated scripts are eligible. I believe Shrek, The Incredibles and Ratatouille were all nominated.
Mark, you need to do better research. Shrek, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille, as well as Finding Nemo and Toy Story, were never nominated for a Writers Guild Award. Great movies, though, and they all recieved Oscar nominations for their respective writers. And The Dark Knight is an adapted screenplay; its characters are developed from the comic book series. In the same manner, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is also an adapted screenplay, since it features characters created in other works. The story line has very little to do with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story (in the same way that There Will Be Blood and O Brother, Where Art Thou? were very loose adaptations of other pieces, but the characters were taken from other sources, so they qualify as adaptations.
I have not yet seen Revolutionary Road but I have seen the Reader and I am not surprised it is being shut out of these awards. I thought it was a pretty weak movie. It was boring and I didn’t care about any of the characters. I usually love Winslet but even she couldn’t save this one.
Can’t believe the Guild went with “Burn After Reading” over “In Bruges.”
Also wonder about the Adapted Screenplay nominations for plays “Doubt” and “Frost/Nixon.” Would they have voted for them if they’d been adapted by someone other than the original writers? And if not, aren’t they really voting for the plays?
No love for Gran Torino. Huh.
I saw both The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Wall-E…And Wall-E is by far a superior movie!!!
If the cast was not made of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett (who I both love) and if the director was not David Fincher, Benjamin Button would be considered an average movie, nothing more!
I think the Writer’s Guild nailed it. I just wish that WALL-E would’ve been nominated over Vicky Christina Barcelona.
No surprise that “Gran Torino” was ignored. Both the screenplay and the supporting acting were horrendous.
No surprise that “Gran Torino” was ignored. Both the screenplay and the supporting acting were horrendous.
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