The USC Libraries have named the authors and screenwriters of Gone Girl, The Imitation Game, Inherent Vice, The Theory of Everything, and Wild as finalists for the 27-annual USC Libraries Scripter Award. Scripter honors the screenwriter or screenwriters of the year’s most accomplished cinematic adaptation as well as the author or authors of the written work upon which the screenplay is based.
The finalists are, in alphabetical order by film title:
Gillian Flynn, author and screenwriter of Gone Girl
For The Imitation Game, author Andrew Hodges, who wrote the book Alan Turing: The Enigma, and screenwriter Graham Moore
Novelist Thomas Pynchon and screenwriter Paul Thomas Anderson for Inherent Vice
Jane Hawking, author of Travelling To Infinity: My Life With Stephen, and screenwriter Anthony McCarten for The Theory of Everything
Screenwriter Nick Hornby for Wild, adapted from Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
The Friends of the USC Libraries established Scripter in 1988. Previous Scripter winners include the screenwriters and authors of 12 Years a Slave, The Social Network, A Beautiful Mind, and The English Patient.
Chaired by USC professor and vice president of the Writers Guild of America, West, Howard Rodman, the 2015 Scripter selection committee selected the five finalists from a field of 97 eligible adaptations.
Serving on the selection committee, among many others, are film critics Leonard Maltin, Anne Thompson and Kenneth Turan; authors Michael Chabon, Michael Ondaatje and Mona Simpson; screenwriters John Ridley, Erin Cressida Wilson and Steve Zaillian; and USC deans Elizabeth Daley of the School of Cinematic Arts, Madeline Puzo of the School of Dramatic Arts and Catherine Quinlan of the USC Libraries.
The studios distributing the finalist films and the publishers of the original stories are:
Gone Girl—Twentieth Century Fox and Crown Publishers
The Imitation Game—Weinstein Company and Princeton Univ. Press (film tie-in edition)
Inherent Vice—Warner Bros. and Penguin Books
The Theory of Everything—Focus Features and Alma Books
Wild—Fox Searchlight and Vintage Books (film tie-in edition)
The USC Libraries will announce the winning authors and screenwriters at a black-tie ceremony on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015 in the historic Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library on the University Park campus of the University of Southern California. Academy Award winners Helen Mirren and Taylor Hackford will serve as honorary dinner chairs.
Celebrated mystery and crime writer Walter Mosley—the author of more than 40 books, including the Easy Rawlins series—will receive the USC Libraries Literary Achievement Award. Mosley is currently working on a Broadway version of his novel Devil in a Blue Dress, a film adaptation of which appeared in 1995, starring Denzel Washington.
Review: Writer-Directors Scott Beck and Bryan Wood’s “Heretic”
"Heretic" opens with an unusual table setter: Two young missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are discussing condoms and why some are labeled as large even though they're all pretty much a standard size. "What else do we believe because of marketing?" one asks the other.
That line will echo through the movie, a stimulating discussion of religion that emerges from a horror movie wrapper. Despite a second-half slide and feeling unbalanced, this is the rare movie that combines lots of squirting blood and elevated discussion of the ancient Egyptian god Horus.
Our two church members — played fiercely by Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East — are wandering around trying to covert souls when they knock on the door of a sweet-looking cottage. Its owner, Mr. Reed, offers a hearty "Good afternoon!" He welcomes them in, brings them drinks and promises a blueberry pie. He's also interested in learning more about the church. So far, so good.
Mr. Reed is, of course, if you've seen the poster, the baddie and he's played by Hugh Grant, who doesn't go the snarling, dead-eyed Hannibal Lecter route in "Heretic." Grant is the slightly bumbling, bashful and self-mocking character we fell in love with in "Four Weddings and a Funeral," but with a smear of menace. He gradually reveals that he actually knows quite a bit about the Mormon religion — and all religions.
"It's good to be religious," he says jauntily and promises his wife will join them soon, a requirement for the church. Homey touches in his home include a framed "Bless This Mess" needlepoint on a wall, but there are also oddities, like his lights are on a timer and there's metal in the walls and ceilings.
Writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Wood — who also... Read More