The Oscar Goes To... Some Writer

Anyone who's read this site for any length of time has read me whine about his screenwriters get the shit-end of the stick, so I'll try to keep it a minimum here. But remember this: Judging a screenplay based on the finished film made from it is a dicey call -- there are a lot of hands which shape a film from screenplay to screen. And that's not to mention the others in development who shape the screenplay from the first purchased draft to the shooting script. As many screenwriters have said before, writing a script and allowing someone else to shoot it is like giving birth to child then having someone else raise it.

It can go both ways -- development execs, actors and directors can add to, or detract from, the original script. When you see an Oscar-nominated screenplay, the film probably turned out pretty well, so before you try and judge the screenplay, you have consider what to examine -- the dialogue (except for obvious improv stuff), the characterizations, the plot points -- and what to ignore: the acting, the cinematography, the music, etc. Since there's no way to knwo who contributed exactly what, it's an almost impossible task. That being said, I didn't read any of the nominated scripts this year, so I'll just have to do what I just you shouldn't really do. That's just how I roll.

In this first of the two screenwriting awards, there's yet another uncertainty to factor in -- since they are adapted, a lot of the credit for dialogue, characters and plot points have to go the original author. Although this year that's a little less of a problem, because two of the screenwriters (Shanley and Morgan) adapted their own plays for the screen -- and one, Shanley, directed as well.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Eric Roth for 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
John Patrick Shanley for 'Doubt'
Peter Morgan for 'Frost/Nixon'
Simon Beaufoy for 'Slumdog Millionaire'
David Hare for 'The Reader'

THE NOMS: Once again, I have to recuse myself on 'The Reader' because I refuse to see it haven't seen it yet, but the others seem reasonable.

WHO SHOULD WIN: Beaufoy and Hare both adapted novels, so it's hard to know just what they brought to the table. I like Roth's work in 'Button', and it's much different than the short story, but its similarity to his own previous work ('Forrest Gump'), and the fact the story is a bit overshadowed by David Fincher's visual wizardry leave it a bit short in my mind. Morgan and Shanley adapted their own plays, so they're the auteurs, and both shooting scripts were tight, with rich character, and crisp dialogue. In a close race, I'll take Morgan.

WHO WILL WIN: Shanley and Morgan each have a decent shot, but I say Beaufoy takes the prize on what will likely be a landslide night for 'Slumdog'.