Just because there's a writers' strike going on doesn't mean Hollywood scribes can't take some time out for some back-patting.
The Writers Guild of America on Thursday announced nominations for its feature-film screenplay prizes, a list dominated by indie fare...and, perhaps in a nod to Jamie Lynn Spears, unplanned pregnancy.
Among the fertility-friendly scripts tapped for Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody's Juno, the art-house comedy about a teen's bun in the oven, and Judd Apatow's Knocked Up, the blockbuster comedy about a single woman's bun in the oven.
Those scripts are up against Tamara Jenkins' family dramedy The Savages; Nancy Oliver's Lars and the Real Girl, about a man and his blow-up doll; and Tony Gilroy's legal thriller Michael Clayton.
The adapted screenplay race features a quartet of awards-show regulars: Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, based on the novel Oil by Upton Sinclair; Joel and Ethan Coen's Cormac McCarthy take, No Country for Old Men; Sean Penn's adaptation of the Jon Krakauer bestseller Into the Wild; and Ronald Harwood's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, from the book by Jean-Dominique Bauby. In a mild surprise, James Vanderbilt's Zodiac, adapted from the book by Robert Graysmith, filled the final slot ahead of Christopher Hampton's lauded take on Ian McEwan's Atonement.
The 10 features were chosen out of a total of 267 films eligible for nominations—164 qualified for Original Screenplay and 103 for Adapted Screenplay. The two categories are generally considered a solid predictor of what films will be vying for the Academy Awards when Oscar nominations are announced Jan. 22.
Gilroy, Anderson, Penn and the Coens have proved dual threats this season, scoring nominations earlier this week for the top prize from the Directors Guild of America.
The Coens, Cody and Harwood are also up for the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay this weekend. The Globes race, which doesn't distinguish between original and adapted scripts, also includes the aforementioned Hampton and Aaron Sorkin (Charlie Wilson's War), which failed to make the WGA cut.
The WGA also unveiled nominees for Best Documentary Screenplay.
Michael Moore's health-care exposé, Sicko, the top-grossing doc of 2007, is up against Charles Ferguson's Iraq film, No End in Sight; Anthony Giacchino's The Camden 28; Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman and Elisabeth Bentley's Nanking; Richard Berge, Nicole Newnham and Bonni Cohen's The Rape of Europa; and Alex Gibney's Taxi to the Dark Side.
The WGA Awards are traditionally doled out in simultaneous ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles. However, the WGA West said while it will announce the winners as scheduled on Feb. 9, it would withhold its ceremony until after the strike is settled. The WGA East had yet to make a decision on the fate of the New York fete.
In related news, No Country for Old Men was named the winner of the 20th Annual University of Southern California Libraries Scripter Award, which recognizes the year's "greatest achievement in cinematic adaptation."
The Scripter selection committee, led by Oscar-nominated scribe Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal (mother of Maggie and Jake), chose No Country from more than 50 eligible movies based on novels, short stories or novellas.
"No Country for Old Men is an accomplished work of filmmaking from the Coen brothers, who have adapted Cormac McCarthy's book with enormous skill and feeling for the dark places in our soul," said Gyllenhaal.
The other finalists were Atonement, Into the Wild, There Will Be Blood and Zodiac.
The Coens and McCarthy will be honored at a black-tie affair Feb. 2.