USC Scripter Nominations: ‘Wonder Woman,’ ‘Call Me By Your Name’ Among Seven Films in Contention

The 30th USC Scripter Awards for Film and Television have been announced and in both categories ties pushed the total nominees above the normal five. That included two comic book adaptations: Logan and Wonder Woman. This isn’t the first time the group has gone for comics though, they nominated the first Iron Man film in 2008.

In film, there was a three-way tie in the nomination round, culminating in seven nominees. The author/screenwriter finalists for film adaptation are::

• Author André Aciman and screenwriter James Ivory for Call Me By Your Name (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber for The Disaster Artist, and authors Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell for their nonfiction book “The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside ‘The Room,’ the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made” (A24)
• Screenwriters Scott Frank, Michael Green, and James Mangold, and authors Roy Thomas, Len Wein, and John Romita, Sr., for Logan (20th Century Fox)
• Screenwriter James Gray and author David Grann for The Lost City of Z (Amazon)
• Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and author Molly Bloom for Molly’s Game (STX Entertainment)
• Screenwriters Dee Rees and Virgil Williams and author Hillary Jordan for Mudbound (Netflix)
• Screenwriter Allan Heinberg and author William Moulton Marston for Wonder Woman (Warner Bros)

Last year’s winner here, Moonlight, went on to win the Adapted Screenplay Oscar.

Writers of six television shows and their adapted source material will vie for the Scripter Award this year. Margaret Atwood received two mentions here, for Alias Grace and The Handmaid’s Tale, a first for television. The finalists are:

• Screenwriter Sarah Polley and author Margaret Atwood for Alias Grace (Netflix)
• David E. Kelley, for the episode “You Get What You Need” from Big Little Lies, and author Liane Moriarty (HBO)
• Noah Pink and Ken Biller for the episode “Einstein: Chapter One” from Genius, and author Walter Isaacson for his book “Einstein: His Life and Word” (National Geographic)
• Bruce Miller for the episode “Offred” from The Handmaid’s Tale and author Margaret Atwood (Hulu)
• Peter Landesman, George C. Wolfe, and Alexander Woo for the television film The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and author Rebecca Skloot (HBO)
• Joe Penhall and Jennifer Haley for “Episode 10” of Mindhunter and authors John Douglas and Mark Olshaker for their nonfiction book “Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit” (Netflix)

Chaired by USC professor and past president of the Writers Guild of America, West, Howard Rodman, the 2018 Scripter selection committee selected the finalists from a field of 91 film and 28 television adaptations.

The USC Libraries will announce the winners in a ceremony on February 10, 2018 in the Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library on the University Park campus of the University of Southern California.