As usual, the Adapted Screenplay category is more crowded than Original, although there could be some switches this year. Contenders are a varied bunch, with movies of all shapes and sizes adapted from plays, novels, memoirs, or documentaries. Some could get lost on VOD during this pandemic year, some may make it to festival play and theaters before this year’s two-month delayed Oscar deadline. Others will push later into 2021.
Among the novel adaptations, auteurs have the advantage with Academy voters. Canadian auteur Denis Villeneuve (“Blade Runner 2049”) and Eric Roth co-wrote their two-part screen adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sprawling 1965 science-fiction novel “Dune” (December 18, Warner Bros.). Oscar Isaac plays Duke Leto Atreides and Timothée Chalamet is his son Paul, who travel to spice planet Arrakis. Zendaya also stars with Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista and Stellan Skarsgard.
Set in the post-Civil War era, “News Of The World” (December 25, Universal) is adapted by directing nominee Paul Greengrass (“United 93”) and writing nominee Luke Davies (“Lion”) from the novel by Paulette Jiles. Tom Hanks reunites with his ”Captain Phillips” director, a traveling newsreader who returns an orphan (Helena Zengel) to her family.
Four-time Oscar nominee Charlie Kaufman took home the win for writing “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” He now directs dark drama “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” (September 4, Netflix) which he adapted from Iain Reid’s novel about a young woman (Jessie Buckley) who arrives with her new boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) at his parents’ isolated farm, and starts to question everything. Toni Collette costars.
Original Screenplay nominee Taylor Sheridan (“Hell or High Water”) and Michael Koryta adapted his novel “Those Who Wish Me Dead” (October 23, 2020, New Line/Warner Bros), about a murder witness (Nicholas Hoult) who is pursued into the Montana wilderness by twin assassins. He tries to survive with the help of a survival expert (Angelina Jolie) as a wildfire threatens to torch them all.
Writer-director Ramin Bahrani follows up HBO’s “Fahrenheit 451” with another adaptation, India rags-to-riches tale “The White Tiger” (Netflix), based on the Man Booker Prize-winning novel by Aravind Adiga, who Bahrani has known since they attended Columbia. The story tracks a low-caste Bangalore driver who climbs out of poverty as a chauffeur who kills his boss and steals his money to become a businessman.
Two of George Clooney’s eight Oscar nominations were for co-writing “Good Night, and Good Luck” and “The Ides of March.” This time, with sci-fi thriller “The Midnight Sky” (Netflix), Clooney directs a script by Lily Brooks-Dalton based on the book by Mark L. Smith about an isolated Arctic scientist (Clooney) trying to prevent a NASA spaceship from returning to Earth after a global disaster.
Autumn de Wilde’s assured new take on “Emma” (Focus) arrived in theaters just before the March lockdown. Eleanor Catton (“The Luminaries”) adapted the Jane Austen classic. Anya Taylor-Joy carries the witty comedy of manners with Johnny Flynn as her romantic foil.
Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” is set to open on December 18, 2020.
20th Century Studios
Theater adaptations
Debuting at Sundance was “The Father” (Sony Pictures Classics) which French playwright-turned-director Florian Zeller adapted from his popular stage play (“La Pere”). Anthony Hopkins plays an imperious old man who tussles with his daughter (Olivia Colman) as he struggles to keep track of his changing surroundings.
For the movie update of the 1957 Broadway musical and Oscar-winning 1961 movie “West Side Story” (December 18, Fox/Disney), Steven Spielberg collaborates again with screenwriter Tony Kushner (“Munich,” “Lincoln”) and cast Ansel Elgort (“Baby Driver”) and singer Rachel Zegler, respectively, as his star-crossed Shakespearean lovers Tony and Maria, as well as Tony-nominee Ariana DeBose (“Summer: The Donna Summer Musical”) in the part of Anita, which won Rita Moreno the Oscar. (Moreno returns in another role.)
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (Netflix) was adapted by actor-writer-director Ruben Santiago-Hudson (“Lackawanna Blues”) from the 1982 play by August Wilson, the only one of his ten Pittsburgh plays set in Chicago. George C. Wolfe directs, Denzel Washington produces and Viola Davis stars as Ma Rainey, with Chadwick Boseman and Colman Domingo playing members of her ’20s jazz band.
(From L-R): Director/Writer Chloé Zhao, Director of Photography Joshua Richardson and Frances McDormand on the set of “Nomadland”
Fox Searchlight Pictures
True Stories
Playing three fall festivals including Toronto is Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” (Searchlight), a follow-up to the Chinese multi-hyphenate’s 2017 breakout feature “The Rider.” After directing Marvel’s “The Eternals” (2021), Zhao returned to exploring America with a road movie adapted from Jessica Bruder’s memoir. Two-time Oscar-winner Frances McDormand (“Fargo,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”) plays a woman hit by the 2008 recession who drives around the country in a van.
“Next Goal Wins” (Searchlight) is written by Adapted Screenplay Oscar-winner Taika Waititi (“Jojo Rabbit”) and Iain Morris from the 2014 British documentary about the coach (thrice-nominated Michael Fassbender) of the American Samoa soccer team, who suffered the worst loss in World Cup history, losing to Australia 31-0 in 2001. Elisabeth Moss costars.
Also based on a non-fiction film is “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” (Searchlight), which TV writer Abe Sylvia (“Nurse Jackie”) adapted from Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s documentary about televangelists Tammy Faye Bakker (producer-star Jessica Chastain) and her husband Jim (Andrew Garfield). “The Big Sick” director Michael Showalter directs.
“Hillbilly Elegy” is adapted by Vanessa Taylor (“The Favourite”) from J.D. Vance’s 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.” Oscar-winner Ron Howard (“A Beautiful Mind”) directs Gabriel Basso as Vance, who is raised by his Appalachian family in Ohio, as well as long overdue actresses Amy Adams and Glenn Close, who total 13 nominations between them.
Kevin Macdonald’s BBC Films drama “Prisoner 760” (STX Entertainment) stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Jodie Foster as two lawyers trying to extricate a prisoner (Tahar Rahim) from Guantanamo Bay after a decade of incarceration. Investigative journalist/producer Michael Bronner (“Captain Phillips,” “United 93”) adapted the memoir “Guantanamo Diary” by Mohamedou Ould Slahi.
Lee Daniels returns to film with biopic “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” (Paramount), adapted by playwright Suzan-Lori Parks from the novel by Johann Hari, and starring Andra Day as the brilliant and troubled jazz singer. Natasha Lyonne will portray Tallulah Bankhead.
“Respect”
YouTube/screenshot
Coming in January is long-in-the-works Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect” (MGM), which the singer was helping develop right up to her death. Having directed several television episodes since “Eclipsed” scored six Tony Award nominations, including best director, Liesl Tommy is directing Jennifer Hudson as Franklin, from her youth singing in her father’s church choir through her career as a Grammy-winning music star. Stacey Scott Wilson (“Fosse/Verdon”) and Oscar-winner Callie Khouri (“Thelma & Louise” and ABC’s “Nashville”) wrote the script, with Tradecraft producer Scott Bernstein (“Straight Outta Compton”) and songwriter-producer Harvey Mason, Jr., producing.
Contenders are listed in alphabetical order. No film will be deemed a frontrunner until I have seen it.
Frontrunners
Eleanor Catton (“Emma”)
Florian Zeller (“The Father”)
Contenders
Ramin Bahrani (“The White Tiger”)
Michael Bronner (“Prisoner 760”)
Lily Brooks-Dalton (“The Midnight Sky”)
Paul Greengrass and Luke Davies (“News of the World”)
Charlie Kaufman (“I’m Thinking of Ending Things”)
Tony Kushner (“West Side Story”)
Suzan-Lori Parks (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”)
Ruben Santiago-Hudson (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”)
Taylor Sheridan and Michael Koryta (“Those Who Wish Me Dead”)
Abe Sylvia (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”)
Vanessa Taylor (“Hillbilly Elegy”)
Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth (“Dune”)
Taika Waititi and Iain Morris (“Next Goal Wins”)
Stacey Scott Wilson and Callie Khouri (“Respect”)
Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”)
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