oscar edition.pdf

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The Sessions Les MiserablesLife of PiAnna KareninaThis is 40Quartet LincolnBeasts of the Southern Wild

The Hobbit: An Unexpected JourneyThe Perks of Being a WallflowerArgo Silver Linings PlaybookThe Best Exotic Marigold HotelAmour Arbitrage FlightDjango Unchained Looper

Hyde Park on HudsonThe Impossible The MasterMiddle of Nowhere Ruby SparksMoonrise Kingdom Promised LandNot Fade Away End of Watch

Seven PsychopathsWreck-It Ralph Zero Dark Thirty

ess ons e

BESTADAPTED

Howd We Do Last Year?

OSCAR s

e

t

Win, Place& Showbiz:

Handicapping theOscar Writing Awardsfor 2012

PLUS:

BESTORIGINAL 2012 Screenplay Nominees

W W W . S C R I P T M A G . C


2/10

O s c a r P r e v i e w

For the last seven years Ive had the privilege of assessing the major releases

of the year and their odds of Oscar nominations and wins for Script Magazine,and Im delighted to continue the tradition. Last year, all of my even-money

picks made it onto the nominations list. Lets see how it goes this year (Note:

as always, this piece was written prior to the announcement of nominations).

is years race in the Oscar nominations and awards is tighter thantheyve been in a decade, not only in terms of the nominees (there wasan amazing number of accomplished screenplays in 2012). It is seriouslytough to predict 2012s ultimate winners. Nevertheless, I will endeavorto do all of the above before this cavalcade is through. As we go along, I

will be passing along some horses mouth/horse sense comments from themany screenwriters I had the pleasure of speaking with, in the course of areally memorable, perhaps even watershed year. So here goes

HANDICAPPING

FOR

WIN

PLACE

&

SHOWBIZ

WRITINGTHE

BestAdaptedScreen

play

Hugo4-1

Moneyball5-2

TheIdesofMarchnood

dsposted

TheDescendantseventual

winner

evenmoney

TinkerTailorSoldierSpy

3-1

BestOriginalScreen

play

MidnightinPariseventua

lwinner

evenmoney

ASeparationnooddsp

osted

Bridesmaids7-1MarginCall

nooddsposted

TheArtistevenmoney

HOW'DWEDOLASTYE

AR?

Anna Karenina

2 Script magazine W W W . S C R I P T M A G . C O M


3/10

B Y B O B V E R I N I

THE ADAPTIONS

Anna KareninaBy Tom Stoppard, based on the Tolstoy novel. A

lot of attention, pro and con, has been paid to Joe

Wrights directorial conceit of setting the interior

scenes in Moscow and St. Petersburg in a dilapi-

dated, but working nineteenth century theater. I

personally think the choice of the stage environ-

ment led to some marvelous eff

ects, though othershave found it half-baked or downright irrelevant.

Be all that as it may, Stoppard has brilliantly

distilled the book into a two-hour film, giving

more focus to the Levin/Kitty subplot arguably

the most personal and thematically meaningful

element of the novel than most if not all previ-

ous cinema adaptations. Its probably important

to note that the screenplay was completed before

the theatre notion was brought forward, and was

unchanged thereafter.

Odds of nomination: 6-1. Divided opinions on

the picture, and on Keira Knightleys performance,

tend to blur Stoppards notable accomplishments.

ArgoBy Chris Terrio, based on the article Escape

from Tehran by Joshuah Bearman. e true-life

rescue as stage managed by

Hollywood players and the

CIA of six staffers during

the 1979 takeover of the

U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

First Person: Terrio saysthat the trickiest thing about

adapting Bearmans journal-

ism into a fully fleshed-out

screenplay was the tone. I

originally thought it would

be a full-out comedy,

but when Affleck became

attached the actor/helmer

helped him conceive of the audacious blend of

satire and thriller that has madeArgoone of the

falls most must-see offerings. e screenwriter

reports that he and Affleck began their work with

the press conference sequence arguably the

broadest and funniest scene in the picture on

the theory that if we could find the balance

there, wed be all right. As it turned out, they

were indeed all right. 3-2 odds; and nominationor not, Terrio has instantly vaulted into A-list

screenwriter status.

Beasts of the Southern WildBy Benh Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar, from her

stage play Juicy and Delicious. Arguably the

years most original feature, its visual richness and

texture are most unusual, especially for an adapta-

tion from the stage. Like Winters Bone, a couple

of years ago, Beastsmade some noise in early

festivals and stayed in circulation throughout theyear, and those are the kind of legs that usually

result in at least a nomination. Members of the

Actors Branch, in particular, are crazy for it, and

the Writers Branch will likely be impressed at

how Zeitlin and Alibar did so much with so few

material resources. Maybe it wont get anything

but a writing nod, but that at least seems a safe

bet at 3-2.

Argo

Get Low

Beasts of the Southern Wild

O S C A R W R I T I N G A W A R D S 2 0 1 2 Script magazine 3


4/10


The Best Exotic Marigold HotelBy Ol Parker, based on the novel ese Foolish ingsby

Deborah Moggach. UK retirees get a new lease on life in amakeshift Jaipur old folks residence.

First Person: ree chapters into reading Moggachs book,

Parker says, I knew it was going to be a very, very free adapta-

tion.ough he was excited to write a romantic comedy for

an older generation, none of the characters in the film bear any

relation to the ones in the book. Tom Wilkinsons character isnt

in the novel at all. A major challenge was the ensemble nature

of the cast. If youre going to write an ensemble, then each

of them is going to have less time on screen, by definition. So

youve got to make sure you give them all something to do It

becomes a little bit like a jigsaw, youre trying to show different

facets of things the sex life and so on, without descendinginto clich.

e picture cost next to nothing and made a fortune,

which never hurts an indies chances in the writing categories.

Moreover, much of the Academy is skewed on the 50+ side and

that demographic seemed particularly receptive to the scripts

themes of golden years self-sufficiency and sexuality. 4-1.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected JourneyBy Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, based on

the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. It has racked up heaps of money in

its first month of release, but the reviews suggest that this may

have been one visit to Middle-Earth too many. Maybe onlyupon the release of film #3 in 2014 will it be clear whether the

decision to break up the Lord of the Ringsprequel into another

trilogy made artistic (as opposed to sheerly commercial) sense.

But at this juncture, the industry doesnt seem at all persuaded.

We say 7-1.

Les MiserablesFirst Person: Nicholsons respect for the source material didnt

blind him to what he calls some crucial beats that were not

in the show, which we added. He cites a crucial one in the

barricades sequence. Javert [Russell Crowe] is captured, andhes given to Valjean [Hugh Jackman] to execute. Javert says,

Go on, do it, Ive always known all you wanted to do was

kill, and Valjean replies, No, you dont understand, you never

have; I dont want to kill you and he cuts his cords and says,

Just go, setting him free in an astonishing act of magnanim-

ity. Subsequently their roles are reversed, when Javert captures

Valjean as he emerges from the sewers. At that point, I said,

We need the reverse version of that first scene. We now need

Javert to hold the gun to Valjeans head. He realizes his chance

to kill him.

And doesnt.

e parallelgesture, he ex-

plains, brings

out that

Javert cannot

not do what

Valjean has

done for him

let him live

and it drives him mad. Fans of the musical will agree that

this seemingly minor revision strengthens the familiar staging.

Les Misis doing well at the box office, and in spite of really

mixed reviews is probably a lock to be nominated for BestPicture. But despite Nicholsons ingenious bolstering of the

original musicals shaky underpinnings, we spot it as only a 7-1

contender for a writing.

Life of PiBy David Magee, based on the Booker Prize-winning novel

by Yann Martel about a young boy trapped in a lifeboat, after

a storm and sinking at sea, with a man-eating Bengal tiger and

not much else. Tech branches are likely to flip for the unique,

jaw-dropping advances in 3-D and the CGI animal behavior

that director Ang Lee and his prodigious team have wrought.

But some industryites profess dissatisfaction with the modernday wraparound narrative, and the storys frankly metaphysical

yet ambiguous underpinnings. Even though Magee arguably

cracked a novel most had written offas unfilmable, his chances

of being recognized for same are probably only in the neighbor-

hood of 5-1.

LincolnBy Tony Kushner, based in part on Team of Rivals: e

Political Genius of Abraham Lincolnby Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Rumor has it that Kushners acclaimed script is based on only

about six pages of Goodwins tome, but evidently it was theright six pages.

First Person: For an epic motion picture, language is incred-

ibly important in Lincoln, and Kushner explains why: Lan-

guage is incredibly important in politics, and in law, and this is

a film about a legislative process, a governmental process, and

politics. So language really counts Words are going to be re-

ally important. Legislators and politicians build whole societies

out of words. And of course its the nineteenth century, so I had

a lot of fun because I could write very dense and complicated

Les Miserables



5/10 O S C A R W R I T I N G A W A R D S 2 0 1 2 Script magazine 5


language; people spoke it more easily back then. And Im happy

that people find it fun to listen to, and enjoy hearing quotes

from Shakespeare and the Bible. Because Lincoln did that.Focusing less on the rivalry among Lincolns cabinet mem-

bers than the political and ideological struggles leading up to

universal abolition of slavery, Kushners script sets the stakes

high early on, and creates a seemingly insuperable number of

obstacles in the path of passing the irteenth Amendment.

e depth and breadth of the screenwriters additional research

can be felt in virtually every frame of Spielbergs massively

intelligent and respectful epic, but frankly, everyone expected

Kushners Lincolnto be thoughtful, literate and pointed. And of

course history gave him great roles to fill out. But the fact that

the picture is also so damned exciting was the big surprise, and

there seems to be general agreement on Kushners contributionto its impact. eres no way work this notable will be ignored.

No way on earth. Even money.

The Perks of Being a Wallfl owerBy Stephen Chbosky, based on his acclaimed young adult

novel about a troubled high schooler and his coming to terms

with family, friends, and adolescence.

First Person: I came up with the title 21 years ago when

I was a senior in college, Chbosky reports, and I remem-

ber saying ats a good movie title. A few years later, after

thinking about it for a long time, I wrote the book, but I

always thought that it would someday be a movie. ough ittook me 10 years to be finally ready to adapt it. During that

decade, he says, he gained the requisite emotional distance

from the material, as well as figuring out how it should be

transformed for the screen. As anyone knows, to translate an

internal first-person narrative into a third-person objective

film with the same emo-

tional impact and sense

of intimacy is tricky. e

key, he says, was applying

emotional discipline and

restraint. For example,

Charlie reveals on page 2of the book that his best

friend Michael commit-

ted suicide. Which is

fine for the book. But if

I did the same thing on

screen it would become

the suicide movie, so I

had to find the restraint

and discipline to find

the perfect place to drop in this very important information.

A kitchen scene with Sam, an older female student, offered

the opportunity. If the audience realizes this young manhas been harboring these feelings and this very sad piece of

information for 20 minutes, then were going to feel sorry for

him, number one. Number two, there are cynics in the world

who will ask, Why would a bunch of seniors befriend this

freshman? Well, if Charlie reveals this to Sam, whos a really

lovely person, then this would motivate her to take him under

her wing.

Chboskys adaptation is replete with savvy touches like this

one, and the overall sense of smartness he brings to the wildly

overexposed coming-of-age genre is likely a major reason that

his film became, along with Beasts of the Southern Wild, one

of 2012s little movies that could. Academy members reportfalling in love with Perks through their screeners; and those

who have also read the book are quite properly astonished at

Chboskys willingness to attack his own material from such a

different, and more cinematic, perspective. He has a real shot at

a nomination here. Call it 5-2.

QuartetBy Ronald Harwood, based on his stage play in which four

old-time opera stars, relegated to an assisted living facility,

decide to go out swinging by performing their famous Act III

quartet from Rigolettobefore residents and guests.

First Person: e Oscar-winning writer of e Pianisthastaken his plays to the screen before, in e Dresserand Taking

Sides, and hes convinced that the absolute key to the process

is totally transforming the stage work for the alternative me-

dium. Of course youre going to use words or lines that youre

attached to, but in the end its a new work. is time around,

the ending in particular involved a major alteration. Onstage,

the four protagonists conspire to lip synch their famous record-

ing of the Verdi in front of the gala audience. Which in a

film is nonsensical, when you come to think of it, Harwood

expostulates. In a film, everything is dubbed anyway! e

revised ending in the movie is naturalistic, and raises the stakes

for the characters in a more suspenseful and satisfying way.

efilm medium also allowed Harwood to deepen the relation-

ships, so that even though the play is a four-hander while the

movie features dozens of aged residents, one gets to know [the

central characters] better. Its a neat piece of work with some

magnificent acting, but it could be that the classical music mi-

lieu is somewhat alienating to a modern audience such that its

not easy to get wrapped up in their problems. Attention must

always be paid when Harwood writes for the screen, but this

time out the odds of nomination are laid at 6-1.

The Perks of Beinga Wallflower


6/1042 Script magazine W W W . S C R I P T M A G . C O M

The SessionsBy Ben Lewin, based on a personal memoir of the late

Mark OBrien, the writer (profiled in the Oscar-winning

1996 documentary short Breathing Lessons) who battled

polio and the depleting sands of the hourglass to experience

physical love with a sex surrogate and tell everyone about it,

candidly and movingly.

First Person: I hit on the story while surfing the Internet;

I had no agenda to tell this particular sort of story. It was

just the surprise of reading it, and I guess within minutes

of reading it, after I composed myself from the emotional

impact, I decided this would be my next project It was

so compact in its form. Really, most of it is two people in aroom, which in most cases amounts to a boring movie, but

not in this case. I think the simple, powerful, really different

emotions you see in this story are amplified by the people

performing them. ere was an even more practical reason

to take on this tale: We felt we could do it without getting

anyones permission. We wouldnt need to shop it around to

the usual suspects who would as usual say no. We wouldnt

have to move mountains to make it. e awards buzz for

John Hawkes and (especially) Helen Hunt in the two major

roles has if anything grown over time, which means that

more Academy members will move e Sessionsup in their

DVD queue; that, in turn, bodes extremely well for Lewinswriting getting recognized. e screenplay is exceptionally

skillful at 3-1.

Silver Linings PlaybookBy David O. Russell, based on the novel by Matthew Quick.

Russells ongoing preoccupation with complex family dynam-

ics, which took a quantum leap forward with e Fightertwo

years ago, hits a career high as he moves into the romantic

comedy genre with confidence and finesse. Quicks novel is

much, much darker than the vision of the Solitano family that

comes through in the movie, but Russell has kept just enoughof the anger and angst to raise rom-com to a fresh new level.

Even money.

This is 40By Judd Apatow, based on characters from Knocked Up.

Can a screenplay be based on characters? Guess so. Anyway,

the Paul Rudd/Leslie Mann starrer has gotten rather rhapsod-

ic reviews, and that can make a huge difference to a comedys

award chances. To hear them talk, Apatows fellow writers

have been looking for an opportunity to grant the comedic

mega-entrepreneur some recognition, but Bridesmaidslackedaesthetic weight and Funny Peoplejust wasnt enough admired.

But is Is 40, with its serious marriage vs. career and parent

vs. child themes, has a lot more going for it than mere belly-

laughs. Moreover, a goodly number of Academy members are

going through the same growing pains as Pete and Debbie, so

the picture may have a high empathy factor in its favor. All of

that suggests a writing nomination could be within reach, and

so wed say the odds are 3-1in its favor.

THE ORIGINALS

AmourBy Michael Haneke. An elderly man nurses his wife

through a series of debilitating strokes as a little of her but

none of their love disappears every day. Happy Holidays

from Sony Classics. is grim and demanding, but surpris-

ingly lighthearted in places, chronicle of final days is the

undisputed arthouse smash of the year, a likely lock for Best

Foreign Film that may even end up on the Best Picture list as

well.

First Person: e theme is stated succinctly and beautifully

by co-star Emmanuelle Riva when she considersAmourinlight of her first international success in 1959: is was a

chance for me to have lived I say, lived in two films: at age

30, Hiroshima, Mon Amourby Alain Resnais, and at age 84,

Amourby Michael Haneke. e impossible love; and love in

its fulfillment. at simple eloquence is emblematic of the

movies effect. Only a last minute rush to some piece of do-

mestic fare or another will keep it from a writing nod. Calling

it 3-2is probably too conservative.


The Sessions



7/10

ArbitrageBy Nicholas Jarecki. A Wall Street wheeler dealer (Richard

Gere) runs into more than he can easily broker when hes at

the wheel for his mistresss death and gets involved in some

hefty books-juggling. An entertaining showcase for the actor

with some juicy scenes and some singular implausibilities,

the picture is hoping to grab the slot 2011sMargin Call

occupied, though the field is more crowded this year. Well

say 5-1.

Django UnchainedBy Quentin Tarantino. is was the real question mark

in thefi

rst half of awards season, but when it wasfi

nallyunveiled in all its profane, shocking, visually beautiful glory,

out-basterding Inglourious Basterds, its place in the roster of

five writing nominees was assured. e controversy over its

violence, in the shadow of the Newtown, CT massacre, is

unlikely to affect the screenplays chances; if anything, Taran-

tinos bloody representation of the antebellum South should

gain admiration for bringing

todays gun control issues into

starker relief. e nomina-

tors, remember, are writers

themselves, and they know an

audacious piece of work when

they see it. Even money.

End of WatchBy David Ayer. A ter-

rific police procedural, all the

more distinctive for never

getting predictable or Hol-

lywood in how the narrative

of the central buddy cops (Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena)

plays out. Underseen and underrated, Ayers accomplish-

ment will likely be left to future filmgoers to discover and

appreciate. 9-1odds for a nod this year.

FlightBy John Gatins. e Academy has certainly bestowed

kudos on cinematic treatments of addiction in the past. But

such laurels have tended to land on the shoulders of the actors

and actresses who do the suffering (and redeeming), rather

than on those of the writers who lay the groundwork for

believability and manage to avoid clich. So it may go this

year with Flight, for which Denzel Washington is as assured

of a nomination as Gatins who has crafted one of the more

interesting addiction-to-recovery yarns in many years maybe left out in the cold. 4-1.

Hyde Park on HudsonBy Richard Nelson. FDR and his domestic accomplishments

take a back seat to his illicit love life in this perhaps too-obvious

follow-up to e Kings Speech. Nelson isnt widely known,

though to many hes one of the most gifted American dramatists

working today; this feels like something of a finger exercise for

him. A nomination seems an 8-1long shot.

The ImpossibleBy Sergio G. Sanchez. Its in the original category because its

not based on material previously published or produced, as

they say. But Sanchezs thrilling narrative of how a five-member

family survived the unspeakable tsunami catastrophe of 2004 is

solidly grounded in field research and consultation with the Al-

varez Belons, who lived it all.

First Person: Numerous

conversations, especially

with Maria and Lucas (the

mother and oldest son, whose

adventure is the main one

on which the movie focuses),revealed many useful details

which allowed the filmmakers

to root the story in emotional

authenticity. Going to Lucas

and asking, How was the

moment when you were

reunited with your brothers?,

and having him reply Its

very simple to explain: It was the happiest moment in my life

that tells you what you want the audience to feel. Not just

the anguish, but also the moments of overwhelming joy these

people went through there. When Maria (Naomi Watts) andLucas (Tom Holland) stop to rescue a small boy, Sanchez felt

he had to include it. It was the most heroic thing that she

did, and it had nothing to do with their survival, but every-

thing to do with keeping their dignity, and what it means

to be a human being.e Impossibleis a strikingly affecting

experience, though its almost documentary realism may blind

some to how carefully Sanchez constructed the script for

filmmaker J.A. Bayona, so its odds of nomination must be

reckoned in the neighborhood of 5-1.


Django Unchained



8/10

LooperBy Rian Johnson. is time-travel thrillers financial suc-

cess has made Johnson a very hot property, and he likely has

one or more award contenders in his future. is particular

story has all the high-concept cleverness of such nominated

flicks as Memento and e Usual Suspects, but is widely

perceived to lack a certain amount of their thematic heft.

So well say: 7-1, while guessing that of all the long shots

profiled in this piece, Loopermight be the least surprising

addition to the final five.

The MasterBy Paul omas Anderson. Certainly the most divisivepicture, and screenplay, of the year. All the pre-release hub-

bub about the auteurs interest in exploring and maybe

exposing the career of L. Ron Hubbard was quickly

forgotten once the movie saw the light of day, and critics

fought over the strangeness of the set pieces (that race in the

desert??), the ambivalence of the central character relation-

ships, and the murky themes. e loose anti-structure of

ere Will Be Bloodwas a surprise after the tight, logical

Boogie Nights, but having seen Blood any serious moviegoer

should have been ready to accept the weirdly asymmetrical

narrative of e Master. Anyhow, the Daniel Day-LewisOscar-winning vehicle was nominated and so will this script

be. Even money.

Middle of NowhereBy Ava DuVernay. A registered nurse looks back in

sorrow and forward in determination when her husband,

for whom she dropped out of med school when he was

imprisoned, is about to be released. No one would be

happier than your correspondent if the Academy were to

add a nomination to the lengthy list of indie awards and

nods this moody, understated picture has already garnered.But like Pariahlast year, its mojo was working full tilt for

a while this award season, and then seems to have slowed.

10-1odds from here, alas.

Moonrise KingdomBy Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola. Confession: Im

pretty blind to the appeal of Andersons oeuvre. Its too twee,

too predigested, and just too smug for my taste. Moreover,

for the life of me I cant see much difference between this

one and all of Andersons others. (e one exception I

found was the charming Fantastic Mr. Fox, whose narrativestrength I credit to its adaptation from a solidly structured

source.) Still, almost everyone else seems to findMoonrisea

cut above the rest, Andersons masterpiece; so his first nod

since e Royal Tanenbaums(not a favorite, I admit) seems

virtually assured. Oh, well. 3-2.

Not Fade AwayBy David Chase. A young Jersey boy starts a rock band in

the 60s. A grittier, darker at ing You Do!, its the long-

awaited feature debut of the creator of e Sopranos.

First Person: Chase worked on this filmscript offand on

during the years of e Sopranos, and then when it was over,and so it seemed opportune to ask him: How do you know

the script is done? When is it time to stop and show it to

friends, co-workers, your kitchen cabinet? After a pause, he

replied, Its a really interesting question. I think, for me, I

reach stages where Im played out on it. I feel like Ive done it,

and it seems like yeah, its pretty good; and yet I know its got

problems, but I cant see them anymore. I cant see the way

clearly. So I try to get my (and thats a good phrase) kitchen

cabinet to read it and give me a little bit of guidance. Youve

just dug so deep into it, youre too close to see it anymore.

I mean, youre working on it for four or five months and

the very sight of it makes you vomit! You know youve gotsomething hopefully but youre not sure what should be

focused on. In the end, his movie is charming and quirky

and not for every taste. (ough not quite so much any of

those traits asMoonrise Kingdom.) Anyway, it screened too

late in the year to get a great deal of traction in early critics

polling, and initial reviews were too mixed to get much of a

steamroller going. Nomination odds only 8-1, but I guarantee

this is a movie (and a screenplay) sure to attract a coterie of

fans and, just maybe, cult status in the future.


The Master



9/10

Promised LandBy John Krasinski and Matt Damon; story by Dave Egg-

ers. A rep of Big Energy (Damon) locks horns with a hippie

environmentalist (Krasinski) when he tries to bring natural

gas wells and wealth to an ailing Pennsylvania hamlet.

First Person: We knew wed be pegged as the anti-frack-

ing movie, admits an earnest Damon, so John and I went

out of our way to not stack the deck one way or the other.

We did a lot of research and got the main arguments of

both sides in

there. Still,

the films

decided

slant towardthe simple,

uncluttered

life makes

it difficult

to see how a back-to-basics lifestyle could ever coexist with

backyard drilling and potentially poisoned aquifers. Under

the cool, considered eye of Good Will Huntinghelmer GusVan Sant, the story plays out about as gently and enjoyably

as it could, with a neat (though to some, implausible) O.

Henry twist along the way. e good will theyre hunting

has been reflected in some but not all the early reviews, so

4-1seems right.

Ruby SparksBy Zoe Kazan. Earlier in the year it looked to waltz into

the slot that seems to be reserved for piquant indie serio-

comedies like Little Miss SunshineandJuno. But this year

Silver Linings Playbookhas that slot cornered, and Rubynever quite achieved the prominence that was expected.

Maybe because of an ending that was widely felt to be

unsatisfying? Anyway, well call it 8-1.


romised Land



10/10

BOB VERINI is the Los Angeles-based theatercritic for Daily Variety, for whom he also contributesfeatures on film, theater and television. Since 2000he has been a senior writer for Script Magazine,also their resident go-to guy for all things Oscarrelated, and a frequent moderator of live screening

talkback sessions and podcast Q&As on industry topics.

Seven PsychopathsBy Martin McDonagh. e legitimate theaters foremost

purveyor of shock (e Beauty Queen of Leenane; e Lieu-

tenant of Inishmore) made a cinematic name for himself with

the Oscar-winning short Six Shooterand the nominated In

Bruges. is new multistar violent epic wasnt seen as making

the creative leap it promised, so despite some Tarantino-

esque dialogue and situations, its odds are likely 5-1.

Wreck-It RalphBy Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee; story by Rich Moore,

Johnston, and Jim Reardon. Your faithful correspondent

would rank this as perhaps #2 or #3 of all the years screen-plays. What a delightful mlange of familiar videogame

characters, unique original characters, choice dialogue, and a

complex but logical premise and execution! However, unless

the words Toy and Story are in the title, an animated

films script has very little chance to be named among the

favored five. 4-1.

Zero Dark ThirtyBy Mark Boal. Boded to be named Best Screenplay Based

on Subpoenaed Material, this true-life follow-up to e

Hurt Locker, by Oscar winner Boal, has won the respect if

not the affection of most everyone who counts. Everybody,especially the Writers Branch, knows the backstory of how

quickly Boal had to research the bin Laden SEAL mission

in order to get Kathryn Bigelows epic procedural before the

cameras in a way that would pass muster by military experts.

at he was able, at the same time, to bring out so much

moral and emotional ambiguity is an achievement no one

will deny, least of all the Writers Branch. An even money

bet for nomination.

So there you have it.

The Nomination Predictions from here:

AdaptedArgo; Beasts of the Southern Wild; Lincoln; Silver Linings

Playbook;and either e Sessions, e Perks of Being a Wall-

floweror is Is 40.

OriginalAmour; Django Unchained; e Master; Moonrise Kingdom;

Zero Dark irty.

And the winners?Wow. ats a tough one. Itd likely be Lincolnvs. Playbook

in the adapted category, whereas any of those five originals

(not to mention a couple others weve considered above)

could take home the bacon. Ill go out on a very treacherous

limb and say Tony Kushner and Mark Boal are most likely

to add a statuette to their mantels on Feb. 24. But I refuse to

count the others out. Were in for some fun, sports fans.


O S C A R S IS A R E G I S T E R E D T R A D E M A R K AN D S E R V I C E M A R K OF T H E AC A D E M Y OF MO T I O N P I C T U R E S AR TS AN D S C I E N C E S ( "ACADEMY") . IMAGE CREDITS : (PAGE 2) ANN A

KA R E N I N A/KE I R A KN I G H T L E Y ; P H O T O CO U R T E S Y OF F O C U S F E A T U R E S (PAGE 3 ) A RG O/J OH N GO O D M A N , A LA N A R K I N , B E N AF F L E C K ; P H O T O CO U R T E S Y OF WA R N E R B R O T H E R S .

B E A S T S OF T HE S O U T H E R N W I LD ; PH O T O CO U R T E S Y OF JE SS P I N K H A M (PAGE 4 ) L E S M I S E R A B L E S/A NN E HA T H A W A Y , HUG H JA C K M A N ; P H O T O CO U R T E S Y OF UN I V E R S A L . (PAGE

5) T H E P E R K S OF B E I N G A WA L L F L O W E R/S C R E E N W R I T E R S T E P H E N CH B O S K Y ; P H O T O CO U R T E S Y OF S U M M I T E N T E R T A I N M E N T . (PAGE 6 ) T H E S E S S I O N S/H E L E N H UN T/J OH N HA W K E S ;

PH O T O CO U R T E S Y OF F OX S E A R C H L I G H T P I C T U R E S . (PAGE 7 ) D J A N G O U N C H A I N E D ; PH O T O C O U R T E S Y OF T H E WE I N S T E I N CO M P A N Y . (PAGE 8 ) T HE MA S T E R/D A N I E L D AY- L E W I S ;

PH O T O C O U R T E S Y OF TWC & A N N A P U R N A P I C T U R E S . (PAGE 9 ) T HE P R O M I S E D L AN D/M AT T D A M O N ; P H O T O C O U R T E S Y OF F O C U S F E A T U R E S . (PAGE 10 ) O S C A R; PH O T O C O U R T E S Y

OF R O B Y N B E C K; AFP/G E T T Y I M A G E S

10 Script maga ine

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