Why do the Oscar Awards nominees for screenplays lacking originality?
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest under way, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we will look at Best Writing – Original Screenplay and Best Writing – Adapted Screenplay. (Note: All previous awards listed are only for writing and not other categories.) WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY) * Dustin Lance Black for Milk * Courtney Hunt for Frozen River * Michael Leigh for Happy-Go-Lucky * Martin McDonagh for In Bruges * Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and Jim Reardon for WALL-E Dustin Lance Black for Milk Tomatometer Score: positive Movie’s Previous Major Nominations: WGA and Independent Spirit Awards Movie’s Previous Major Wins: WGA Screenwriter’s Previous Major Nominations: First Screenplay Screenwriter’s Previous Major Wins: First Screenplay Notes: I think this is a two-horse race with Milk and WALL-E being the two main contenders. WALL-E earned better reviews and was see
About the only fresh material these days comes from purely personal stories such as “A Serious Man” and “(500) Days” — movies that come together only through an alignment of the planets and despite a highly unreceptive climate. When execs at Sony passed on “(500) Days” — joining nearly every other studio in doing so — they asked Neustadter if he and Weber could pen “The Pink Panther 2” instead. “I was like, really? Have you read our script?” Neustadter recalls (though the pair did end up doing a draft for the “Panther” sequel). All this would be troubling enough if the Oscars existed independently of the realpolitik of Hollywood. But the current lack of original screenplays might reinforce the negative trend: Studios don’t produce many, the Academy doesn’t have many to choose from, and then the category loses stature, further disincentivizing studios from greenlighting those types of movies. Because the category is relatively free of the politics of the acting categories and depends
Awards season might have an originality issue. Since it was introduced 70 years ago, the Academy Awards’ original screenplay category has been a breeding ground for fresh new voices, launching careers and solidifying the legacy of writers as diverse as Orson Welles, Billy Wilder and Paddy Chayefsky. The Coen brothers’ “A Serious Man,” Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” and Bob Peterson’s and Tom McCarthy’s “Up” are likely near-locks for noms. That leaves two slots, one of which could go to Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber for their quirky breakup story “(500) Days of Summer.” The lack of established writers is catching the eye of many in the development community as something more permanent. Sources: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091103/en_nm/us_oscars;_ylt=AmlzLDJZO4bZlBSN.
