“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” has become the first animated film to be saluted at the USC Libraries Scripter Awards, an annual honor that goes to the screenwriters of a film adaptation as well as the authors of the original work on which the film is based.
“Pinocchio” was named as a finalist alongside the screenplays for “Living,” “She Said,” “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Women Talking.” Because the original authors are also recognized, 2023 scripter nominees include 19th century Italian writer Carlo Collodi, who wrote the original version of “Pinocchio” in 1880; Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, whose 1886 novella “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” about breaking the story of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct and were played 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 “Women Talking” was adapted by Sarah Polley for the film of the same name.
Not only is “Pinocchio” the first animated film to become a Scripter Award finalist, but “Top Gun: Maverick” is the top-grossing finalist ever, at almost $1.5 billion worldwide.
In the television category, Scripter 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 past Writers Guild of America, West president 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, amost 65% of the Scripter finalists have gone on to be nominated for Academy Awards in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. In the 34-year history of the Scripters, the winner has matched the Oscar winner 14 times, most of those in an eight-year streak between 2010 and 2017.
From the scripter 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 novella “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” by Leo Tolstoy
Rebecca Lenkiewicz for “She Said” based on the nonfiction book “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite 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 “Top Guns” 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 stage play “The Audience”
Taffy Brodesser-Akner for the episode “The Liver,” from “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” based on her book of the same name
Will Smith for the episode “Failure’s Contagious,” from “Slow Horses,” based on the novel by Mick Herron
J. T. Rogers for the episode “Yoshino” from “Tokyo Vice,” based on the memoir “Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat 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 by Jon Krakauer
