The USC Libraries named the finalists for the 32nd-annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, which honors the year’s most accomplished film and television adaptations, as well as the works on which they are based.
The finalist writers for feature films are:
–Matthew Carnahan and Mario Correa for “Dark Waters” (Focus Features) based on the New York Times Magazine article “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare” by Nathaniel Rich
–Steven Zaillian for “The Irishman” (Netflix) based on the nonfiction work “I Heard You Paint Houses” by Charles Brandt (Steerforth Press)
–Taika Waititi for “Jojo Rabbit” (Fox Searchlight) based on the novel “Caging Skies” by Christine Leunens (publisher Harry N. Abrams)
–Author Louisa May Alcott and screenwriter Greta Gerwig for “Little Women” (Sony Pictures; publisher–Signet Classics)
–Anthony McCarten for “The Two Popes” (Netflix) based on his play “The Pope” (Flatiron Books)
The finalist writers for television are:
–Phoebe Waller-Bridge, for the first episode of “Fleabag” (Amazon) based on her one-woman play of the same name (Nick Hern Books)
–Joel Fields and Steven Levenson for the episode “Nowadays” from “Fosse/Verdon” (FX) based on the biography “Fosse” by Sam Wasson (Mariner Books)
–Emerald Fennell for the episode “Nice and Neat,” from “Killing Eve” (BBC America) based on the novel “Codename Villanelle” by Luke Jennings (Mulholland Books)
–Susannah Grant, Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman for the first episode of “Unbelievable” (Netflix) based on the article “An Unbelievable Story of Rape,” by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong (ProPublica & The Marshall Project)
–Damon Lindelof and Cord Jefferson for the episode “This Extraordinary Being,” from “Watchmen” (HBO) based on the comic book series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (DC Comics)
Chaired by USC professor and past president of the Writers Guild of America, West, Howard Rodman, the 2020 Scripter selection committee selected the finalists from a field of 61 film and 58 television adaptations.
Serving on the selection committee, among many others, are film critics Leonard Maltin, Anne Thompson and Kenneth Turan; authors Lisa Belkin, Steve Erickson and Michael Ondaatje; screenwriters Larry Karaszewski and Erin Cressida Wilson; producers Mike Medavoy and Suzanne Todd; and USC deans Elizabeth Daley of the School of Cinematic Arts and Catherine Quinlan of the USC Libraries.
The USC Libraries will announce the winning authors and screenwriters at a black-tie ceremony on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020 in the historic Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library on the University Park campus of the University of Southern California. Since 1988, Scripter has honored the authors of printed works alongside the screenwriters who adapt their stories. In 2016, the USC Libraries inaugurated a new Scripter award, for television adaptation.
