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Writers Guilds Nominates Trek for Best Adapted Screenplay

MvRojo

MvRojo

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WGA just announced their nominations a few minutes ago, and Star Trek was nominated for BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY!!!!!!!

This is definitely one of the most prestigious awards that Trek has been nominated for and should help build further buzz as Oscar nominating ballots are in the hands of the Academy.


ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

- Crazy Heart, Screenplay by Scott Cooper; Based on the novel by Thomas Cobb; Fox Searchlight
- Julie & Julia, Screenplay by Nora Ephron; Based on the books Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme; Sony Pictures
- Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher; Based on the novel Push by Sapphire; Lionsgate
- Star Trek, Written by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman; Based upon Star Trek, Created by Gene Roddenberry; Paramount Pictures
- Up in the Air, Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner; Based upon the novel by Walter Kirn; Paramount Pictures


ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

- (500) Days of Summer, Written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber; Fox Searchlight
- Avatar, Written by James Cameron; 20th Century Fox
- The Hangover, Written by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore; Warner Bros.
- The Hurt Locker, Written by Mark Boal; Summit Entertainment
- A Serious Man, Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen; Focus Features
 
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One thing to keep in mind is that the WGA has uber-restrictive rules, so the following films weren't eligible (but will be for the Academy Awards): Inglourious Basterds, Up, A Single Man, District 9, An Education, The Road, In the Loop. Four of these are based on previous work and will likely make their way into the Best Adapted Screenplay category at the Oscars (likely A Single Man or An Education).
 
Well, they deserve it. Congratulations to them.

The funny thing about how credits work, particularly where adapted material is concerned.

For example, Star Trek is considered to be adapted from Gene Roddenberry's work for writing credit purposes, but it in fact is mainly adapted from the work of many, many writers who created most of the characters and the environment in which they exist.

Of the major Trek characters, only one - Spock - was truly created by Roddenberry in the sense of his having written them. Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu all have their genesis in scripts written by other people. The dialogue and action of scripts by Peebles, Sohl, Coon and others are where the salient characteristics of those characters are defined for the first time.
 
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so Dennis, does that have any practical effect on Trek being nominated for writing awards?
 
Dennis said:
Of the major Trek characters, only one - Spock - was truly created by Roddenberry in the sense of his having written them. Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu all have their genesis in scripts written by other people. The dialogue and action of scripts by Peebles, Sohl, Coon and others are where the salient characteristics of those characters are defined for the first time.
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Sure but the premise was GR's, and (despite minor character trait variations), Winter/April/Pike/Kirk are versions of the same lead character, and so are Doctors Boyce/Piper/McCoy in the supporting role.
 
Fans will always tolerate that self-aggrandizing nonsense but that's what it is - nonsense. Those versions of the lead characters which made their way onto the screen (ignoring those that were just names like "Winter" or "April") were different other than holding the same titles - "captain" or "doctor."

This is a very "Hollywood" way of glomming on to creative credit - whether as a writer, a designer, or even in areas like costuming and music - which exaggerates the credit given to producers and functionaries and diminishes the credit (and often compensation) given to the people who actually write and design.

Sam Peebles contributed more to the definition of James Kirk in his single episode than GR did in a lifetime of claiming credit for it. Gene Coon certainly did. Sohl created the essential dramatic/comic posture of "Bones McCoy" out of whole cloth.

Fortunately, the guilds put some brakes on a few of the more ridiculous manifestations of this larceny (such as the "director as auteur" foolishness).

Read the revised introduction by Fern to her "Last Conversation" to get some sense of how she came to realize how...vagrant GR's claims about his influence on various aspects of the original Star Trek really were.
 
As much as I liked Trek XI...I dunno if the writing was really the strength. Then again they also nominated Avatar. :rommie:

But how the heck does it qualify as "adapted screenplay"??? Adapted from what, Gene Roddenberry never wrote a story about time-traveling Spock and Romulans blowing up Vulcan. Avatar is the adapted screenplay - from Dances with Wolves and Pocohantas. If "adapted" is the right word for that. ;)
 
Excellent!

Trek being nominated for all these major industry awards is a fantastic coup, and more than makes up for all those years I was bullied at school for liking Trek, and having to hide Trek-related publications inside a big brown paper bag like some kind of pervert!

Seriously, excellent news. Even if Trek doesn't win at the Writers Guild awards, or at the Oscars, even being nominated is a great victory for the franchise and for Trekkies/Trekkers everywhere!
 
Temis the Vorta said:
As much as I liked Trek XI...I dunno if the writing was really the strength. Then again they also nominated Avatar. :rommie:

But how the heck does it qualify as "adapted screenplay"??? Adapted from what, Gene Roddenberry never wrote a story about time-traveling Spock and Romulans blowing up Vulcan. Avatar is the adapted screenplay - from Dances with Wolves and Pocohantas. If "adapted" is the right word for that. ;)
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It's a sequel to Star Trek. Under the Academy rules, any sequel is an adapted screenplay based on the original, first work, which is Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry.
 
This movie hinged on the script. If the script had not accomplished absolutely everything required for this movie to work, it would have bombed.

Orci and Kurtzman are extraordinarily skillful at what they do, which has been in the main to deliver shooting scripts tailored to the specific requirements of these huge projects. To do that they have to thoroughly understand the source material - yep, especially when they deviate from it, and more especially the more they deviate - and to completely support the demands and what everyone seems to call the "vision" of directors and other artists.

The screenplay for Star Trek is, rather obviously, not the screenplay for Transformers II. These guys are experts. They deliver every time for the people who employ them.
 
In a complete non-surprise, The Hurt Locker and Up in the Air won the two WGA Awards for Original and Adapted Screenplay, respectively.
 
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