This story will break in the trades tomorrow, but here’s the scoop.
In a rather shocking turn of events, the screenplay for Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana, a Golden Globe winner for Best Supporting Actor Monday night, was apparently classified by the Academy as an original screenplay in a meeting held in mid-December.
The Academy’s decision, which is obviously a month old at this juncture, was not revealed in any way as awards season accelerated through the last 30 days. Gaghan himself was not even made privy to the classification until today. Meanwhile, his work as writer of the screenplay has seen recognition from the Writers Guild of America in the adapted category, and was also a nominee for the USC Scripter Award which recognizes the writers of heralded adaptations each year in addition to the source material that spawned them. Syriana was even a finalist for the Scripter win along with Capote, a competition that came down to the latter taking the award earlier this afternoon.
The Academy had no obligation to announce their decision, it turns out, one that is extremely rare if ever seen before in a film awards season – a screenplay being moved to the “original” category following the studio’s initial submission of “adapted.” The reverse, however, is not so out of the ordinary.
The original submission noted the script as being adapted from CIA insider Robert Baer’s memoir See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism.What could hinder the film’s Oscar prospects is the possibility of this information not being recognized by the Academy voting body. The script was on the reminder list of originals, after all. But any mention the film receives in the adapted category from Academy members will not be considered. Even if every member of the 6,000 strong organization chalked it up for a citation in adapted, each vote would be tossed.
Typically, most Academy members turn in their votes within the first week of receiving ballots. And polling closes in a mere two days, so the situation is rather dire for Warner Bros. and the good folks at The Dart Group who have put together a fantastic campaign for the film. But news spreads fast on the net, so maybe the situation can be salvaged after all.
Tell a friend.
[Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures]