The USC Libraries named the finalists for the 36th-annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, which honors the writers of the year’s most accomplished film and episodic series adaptations, as well as the writers of the works on which they are based. Apple Original Films/Apple TV+ productions have two nominations.
The finalist writers for film adaptation are, in alphabetical order by film title (with Apple’s nominations in bold):
- Cord Jefferson for “American Fiction” based on the novel “Erasure” by Percival Everett
- Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese for “Killers of the Flower Moon” based on the nonfiction book “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI” by David Grann
- Christopher Nolan for “Oppenheimer” based on the nonfiction book “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
- Ava DuVernay for “Origin” based on the nonfiction book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson
- Screenwriter Tony McNamara and novelist Alasdair Gray for “Poor Things”
The finalist writers for episodic series are, in alphabetical order by series title:
- Peter Morgan, for the episode “Sleep, Dearie Sleep,” from “The Crown,” based on his stage play “The Audience”
- Scott Neustadter for the episode “Fire,” from “Daisy Jones and the Six,” based on the novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann for the episode “Long, Long Time” from “The Last of Us,” based on the video game by Neil Druckmann and Naughty Dog
- Will Smith for the episode “Negotiating with Tigers,” from “Slow Horses,” based on the novel “Real Tigers” by Mick Herron
- Max Borenstein, Rodney Barnes and Jim Hecht for the episode “The New World,” from “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” based on the nonfiction work “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s” by Jeff Pearlman
The Scripter Award winners will be announced on Saturday, March 2.
