Saturday, January 12, 2008

WGA calls off awards show

http://www.variety.com/VR1117978857.html

WGA calls off awards show
Winners will still be announced on Feb. 9
By DAVE MCNARY
Thurs., Jan. 10, 2008

The WGA has called off the Feb. 9 awards show in Los Angeles — unless it has ended its strike by then.
In a brief announcement Thursday afternoon, the guild said it would announce its awards as planned but added, “There will be no Writers Guild of America West show until the strike is over.”

The guild – which announced its screenplay nominations earlier Thursday – has been planning to hold its event at the Bonaventure in downtown Los Angeles.

For its part, the WGA East has not yet decided whether it will proceed with its awards event, which has been set for the Hudson Theater at the Broadway Millenium Hotel in Gotham. “We are exploring our options and we will let you know when we have made a decision,” said WGA East rep Sherry Goldman.

With the DGA not yet having set its talks with the AMPTP, it’s unlikely that the 10-week writers strike would be settled by Feb. 9. WGA talks collapsed on Dec. 7 after the AMPTP demand that the scribes remove half a dozen proposals from the table; no new WGA negotiations have been scheduled.

Before canceling the kudos, the WGA announced the nominations for adapted and original screenplays, as well as best documentary.

Among the nominations, original screenplay nods went to Diablo Cody for Fox Searchlight’s “Juno,” Tony Gilroy for Warner’s “Michael Clayton,” Tamara Jenkins for Searchlight’s “The Savages,” Judd Apatow for U’s “Knocked Up” and Nancy Oliver for MGM’s “Lars and the Real Girl.”

Adapted nods went to Ethan and Joel Coen for Miramax’s “No Country for Old Men,” Paul Thomas Anderson for Par Vantage’s “There Will Be Blood,” Ronald Harwood for Miramax’s “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” Sean Penn for Vantage’s “Into the Wild” and James Vanderbilt for Par’s “Zodiac.”

WGA voters named all five of the films nominated earlier this week for the DGA’s top directing award. Anderson, the Coen brothers, Gilroy and Penn all received DGA nominations as did Julian Schnabel for “Diving Bell.”

Documentary noms went to Anthony Giacchino for First Runs’s “The Camden 28,” Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman and Elisabeth Bentley for Thinkfilm’s “Nanking,” Charles Ferguson for Magnolia’s “No End in Sight,” Richard Berge, Nicole Newnham and Bonni Cohen for Menemshaw’s “The Rape of Europa,” Michael Moore for Lionsgate’s “Sicko” and Alex Gibney for Thinkfilm’s “Taxi to the Dark Side.”

Moore won the WGA original screenplay award four years ago for “Bowling for Columbine” dcumentary. The WGA then decided to set up a separate documentary category, making docs ineligible for the screenplay categories.

Documentaries that were eligible featured an on-screen writing credit and were exhibited theatrically in Los Angeles or New York for one week in 2007. Credited writers were required to join the WGA’s Nonfiction Writers Caucus but the scripts were not required to have been written under WGA jurisdiction to be considered.

WGA winners have matched Oscar winners in the original category eight times in the last 13 years, including last year when Michael Arndt won for “Little Miss Sunshine.” In the adapted screenplay category, winners have matched nine times in the last 13 years with William Monahan taking both trophies last year for “The Departed.”

Features eligible for a WGA award were released during 2007 and produced under WGA jurisdiction or under that of affiliate guilds in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, and New Zealand. There were 164 pics eligible in the original screenplay and 103 in adapted screenplay.

And the nominees are:

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
"Juno" - Writtenby Diablo Cody, Fox Searchlight
"Michael Clayton" - Written by Tony Gilroy, Warner Bros. Pictures
"The Savages" - Written by Tamara Jenkins, Fox Searchlight
"Knocked Up" - Written by Judd Apatow, Universal Pictures
"Lars and the Real Girl" - Written by Nancy Oliver, MGM

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
"No Country For Old Men" - Screenplay by Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, Based on the Novel by Cormac McCarthy, Miramax
"There Will Be Blood" - Screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson, Based on the Novel Oil by Upton Sinclair, Paramount Vantage
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" - Screenplay by Ronald Harwood, Based on the Book by Jean-Dominique Bauby, Miramax
"Into the Wild" - Screenplay by Sean Penn, Based on the Book by Jon Krakauer, Paramount Vantage
"Zodiac" - Screenplay by James Vanderbilt, Based on the Book by Robert Graysmith, Paramount Pictures

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
"The Camden 28" - Written by Anthony Giacchino, First Run Features
"Nanking" - Screenplay by Bill Guttentag & Dan Sturman & Elisabeth Bentley, Story by Bill Guttentag & Dan Sturman, THINKFilm
"No End In Sight" - Written by Charles Ferguson, Magnolia Pictures
"The Rape Of Europa" - Written by Richard Berge, Nicole Newnham and Bonni Cohen, Menemsha Films
"Sicko" - Written by Michael Moore, Lionsgate/The Weinstein Company
"Taxi To The Dark Side" - Written by Alex Gibney, THINKFilm

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