“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” has become the first animated film to receive the USC Libraries Scripter Awards, an annual honor given to the screenwriters of a film adaptation as well as the authors of the original work in which it is featured. base the movie
“Pinocchio” was named a finalist along with the scripts for “Living,” “She Said,” “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Women Talking.” Because the original authors are also recognized, the screenwriters nominated for 2023 include 19th-century Italian writer Carlo Collodi, who wrote the original version of “Pinocchio” in 1880; Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, whose 1886 novel “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” was adapted by Akira Kurosawa for the 1952 film “Ikiru” and by Kazuo Ishiguro for 2022’s “Living”; New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, who wrote the book “She Said” on revealing Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct story and were portrayed in the film version by Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan, respectively; Ehud Yonay, whose 1983 article in “California” magazine inspired the 1986 film “Top Gun” and its 2022 sequel; and novelist Miriam Toews, whose book “Talking Women” was adapted by Sarah Polley for the film of the same name.
Not only is “Pinocchio” the first animated film to become a Scripter Prize finalist, but “Top Gun: Maverick” is the highest-grossing finalist ever, with nearly $1.5 billion worldwide.
In the television category, Scripter’s finalists are episodes of “The Crown,” “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” “Slow Horses,” “Tokyo Vice,” and “Under the Banner of Heaven.”
The finalists were chosen by a jury of authors, screenwriters and critics chaired by USC professor and former President of the Writers Guild of America, West, Howard Rodman.
Winners will be announced at a black-tie fundraiser at the Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library on the USC campus on Saturday, March 4.
In this century, nearly 65% of Scripter finalists have been nominated for Academy Awards in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. In the Scripters’ 34-year history, the winner has matched the Oscar winner 14 times, most in an eight-year streak between 2010 and 2017.
From the screenwriter’s press release, here is the list of finalists:
Film Finalists:
Guillermo del Toro, Patrick McHale and Matthew Robbins for “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” based on the fairy tale “The Adventures of Pinocchio” by Carlo Collodi
Kazuo Ishiguro for “Living” based on the novel “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” by Leo Tolstoy
Rebecca Lenkiewicz by “She said” based on the nonfiction book “She said: break the history of sexual harassment that helped start a movement” by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey
Peter Craig, Ehren Kruger, Justin Marks, Christopher McQuarrie and Eric Warren for “Top Gun: Maverick” based on characters from the 1983 “California” magazine article “Best Weapons” by Ehud Yonay
Screenwriter Sarah Polley and novelist Miriam Toews for “Women Talking”
television finalists
Peter Morgan, for the episode “Couple 31”, from “The crown,” based on his play “The audience”
Taffy Brodesser-Akner for the episode “The Liver”, from “Fleishman’s in Trouble” based on his book of the same name
Will Smith for the episode “Failure’s Contagious” from “Slow Horses” based on the novel by Mick Herron
JT Rogers for the episode “Yoshino” of “Tokyo Vice” memory based “Tokyo Vice: An American reporter on the police pace in Japan” by Jake Adelstein
Dustin Lance Black for the episode “When God Was Love”, from “Under the Banner of Heaven” based on the nonfiction work of Jon Krakauer
