ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Burn After Reading, Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Focus Features
Milk, Written by Dustin Lance Black, Focus Features
Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Written by Woody Allen, The Weinstein Company
The Visitor, Written by Tom McCarthy, Overture Films
The Wrestler, Written by Robert Siegel, Fox Searchlight Pictures

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Screenplay by Eric Roth; Screen Story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord; Based on the Short Story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures

The Dark Knight, Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan; Story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer; Based on Characters Appearing in Comic Books Published by DC Comics; Batman Created by Bob Kane, Warner Bros. Pictures

Doubt, Screenplay by John Patrick Shanley, Based on his Stage Play, Miramax Films

Frost/Nixon, Screenplay by Peter Morgan, Based on his Stage Play, Universal Pictures

Slumdog Millionaire, Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy, Based on the Novel Q and A by Vikas Swarup, Fox Searchlight Pictures

http://www.awardsdaily.com/?p=5653

Great news for The Dark Knight. RR sinks further, if it had ever risen.

The top 5 BP contenders strengthened their positions again, even though this is another guild that Wall-E is not eligible.

RGB is snubbed, but good news for The Wrestler.

Yeah that's great for TDK, even though the overall adapted nominees are kinda expected.


But Best Original...WTF?! No Happy-Go-Lucky, In Bruges, WALL-E or Rachel Getting Married?!

Can the Coens really get yet another Oscar nom this year?!! Bodes well for The Visitor, though and looks like The Wrestler is stronger than we thought. Maybe a surprise DGA nom is in play...


I expect the Oscar noms for adapted to match 5/5, but for Original no more than 3/5.

The Dark Knight!!!!!!
That's awesome news. I didn't think it would show up here.
I'm happy to see The Visitor and Burn After Reading pick up noms as well.

WALL-E and In Bruges probably didn't qualify (Animated, McDonagh isn't a WGA member). And Leigh was snubbed for Vera Drake yet still got a nomination (Though he was nominated for Secrets & Lies 12 years ago, so he does qualify, I guess).

However, this is quite a blow up RGM.

How I'd rank the contenders ATM:

1. Milk
2. Vicky Christina Barcelona (Probably the only two sure things)
3. WALL-E
4. The Visitor
5. Rachel Getting Married

6. The Wrestler
7. Burn After Reading
8. In Bruges

I'd say 4-8 are all fighting for the final two slots. It'll certainly be interesting to see what happens. As for Adapted:

1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. Frost/Nixon
3. Doubt
4. The Dark Knight
5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

6. The Reader
7. Revolutionary Road

I think the final five are set, though I could see a surprise snub for BB (The screenplay is consistently the most criticized part) for something small/random (Gomorrah?).

Woah, forgot Happy-Go-Lucky.

That might actually be ahead of RGM at this point. What a clusterfuck of a category.

For the first time in many years (for me anyway), the original screenplay category is a little more exciting.

The adapted screenplay category not only sucks: it's boring.

Whoda thunk that it and Actress would easily be the two most exciting categories this season? Kinda cool, considering how quiet most of the other categories have become.

Exactly. Even with the almost no-show of potential BP nominees in each category. Each year.

I think Best Actor is a pretty exciting race too this season. I think there are at least five actors with a fair chance at actually winning (Pitt, Langella, Rourke, Eastwood and Penn).

No RGM.

I think that seals the deal for TDK, but I still don't think WALL-E is out because it's simply not eligible for so many award events. Is BAFTA kind enough?

WALL-E wasn't eligible anyway. It's a mystery nom, though I do wonder if the guilds can hurt its momentum. It did make the BAFTA longlists, though. If the BAFTAs nominate it for BP, would that seal the deal? Unless F/N does too and just confuses us more...

For future reference, found this by a poster on EW:

"Wall-E is not eligible because animation does not fall under WGA jurisdiction (despite the WGA's best efforts). Animation writers are paid under the IATSE Local 839, aka The Animation Guild."

Also this bodes VERY well for TDK. I now think it has a decent chance at being the most nominated film this year (I thought screen play was a bit of a longshot before the WGAs came out). Given the headlines we've seen from PGA and WGA (i.e. Dark Knight being the header or in the first line) and what we'll likely see from DGA, Dark Knight being nominated for BP will be a huge news story and the ratings will be way up. I'm not so sure it might not snag the top prize with late populist momentum.

I've been predicting it since July.

Tell a lie long enough and it can become true...plus I'm perceptive like that.

A 1/5 match for Original.

WTF happened?

That is a surprise.

awards are tonight.

I can hardly muster any excitement and I'm usually crazy about the WGAs

Wow, they only matched up 1/5 in O. Screenplay. Should make the winner predictions even easier.