Writer's Guild nominations surprise

Just a few minutes ago the Writer's Guild of America unveiled the nominations for its Writer's Guild Awards and there are some surprises, both good and bad, in the list of nominees:

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• "Burn After Reading," Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
• "Milk," Written by Dustin Lance Black
• "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," Written by Woody Allen
• "The Visitor," Written by Tom McCarthy
• "The Wrestler," Written by Robert Siegel

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Screenplay by Eric Roth; Screen Story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord; Based on the Short Story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
• "The Dark Knight," Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan; Story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer; Based on Characters Appearing in Comic Books Published by DC Comics.
• "Doubt," Screenplay by John Patrick Shanley, Based on his Stage Play.
• "Frost/Nixon," Screenplay by Peter Morgan, Based on his Stage Play.
• "Slumdog Millionaire," Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy, Based on the Novel Q and A by Vikas Swarup.

So, that sure is a wide variety of films there. The best one, of course, being "The Dark Knight" which really needed a WGA nod to help it's chances of getting an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. It missed out on the Screen Actor's Guild equivilant of Best Picture, but scored a Producer's Guild nomination for Best Picture. The clincher will be the Director's Guild nominations, announced tomorrow. If Christopher Nolan is nominated then "The Dark Knight" has a really great chance of getting a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards. Just think about that for a second, a comic book movie nominated for Best Picture.

Bad surprises; I fully expected to see "In Bruges" get an Original Screenplay nod. The script was the best part of the film. Maybe the Guild didn't like the "One F-word every 1.18 minutes" ratio. Well, f-that.

I was happy with the nominations for "The Wrestler" and "The Visitor," which I saw last night and it was good.

In Adapted Screenplay, "Doubt" scored a nomination and maybe shouldn't have. That was my main problem with the movie was the script. Well, that and the funky camera angles. "Slumdog Millionaire" is riding a wave of hype all the way to the bank and that doesn't make me happy. Watch the next episode of Viewpoints On... for my feelings on the film. Just a hint, it's not in my top ten (or 15) of 2008.

So, I have seen five out of the 10 nominees. That is pretty good for me. That number will go up by one, hopefully, if "Frost/Nixon" ever gets released around here.