The USC Libraries have named the finalists for the 28th annual USC Libraries Scripter Award. Since 1988, Scripter has honored the authors of printed works alongside the screenwriters who adapt their stories.This year, for the first time, Scripter will honor excellence in adaptation of the printed word into a television episode in addition to feature film. The television and film finalists compete in separate categories for their own Scripter award.
The finalist writers for film are, in alphabetical order by film title:
Screenwriters Adam McKay and Charles Randolph for The Big Short, adapted from Michael Lewis’s nonfiction work The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
Novelist Colm Tóibín and screenwriter Nick Hornby for Brooklyn
Screenwriter Donald Margulies for The End of the Tour, adapted from David Lipsky’s memoir Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace
Novelist Andy Weir and screenwriter Drew Goddard for The Martian
Emma Donoghue for the novel and screenplay of Room
Chaired by USC professor and president of the Writers Guild of America, West, Howard Rodman, the 2016 Scripter selection committee selected the finalists from a field of 73 film and 18 television adaptations. Serving on the selection committee, among many others, are film critics Leonard Maltin, Anne Thompson and Kenneth Turan; authors Michael Chabon, Michael Ondaatje and Mona Simpson; screenwriters Graham Moore, John Ridley and Erin Cressida Wilson; producers Gale Anne Hurd and Suzanne Todd; and USC deans Elizabeth Daley of the School of Cinematic Arts and Catherine Quinlan of the USC Libraries.
Now you know some of the people who omitted honoring the adaptation of the Price of Salt (later published as Carol) by Patricia Highsmith and the screenwriter Phyllis Nagy. I loved the novel that was very fast intense reading for me; easily noticed most of the changes in the movie but believe that for creative, continuity and visual storytelling the changes were superb. Carol deserved recognition from this academic group, sigh.
The USC Libraries will announce the winning authors and screenwriters at a black-tie ceremony on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016 in the historic Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library on the University Park campus of the University of Southern California. Academy Award winners Helen Mirren and Taylor Hackford will serve as honorary dinner chairs.To check TV nominees go here or later to the official site here, as they haven't update yet.