Best Adapted Screenplay

First out of the gate is not a literary adaptation, but an American remake of a Hong Kong film. William Monahan took the Mandarin Chinese script for Wu Jian Dao, set it in Boston, and fashioned the crackling wiseguy script for The Departed. Tom Perrotta’s name first appeared in the adapted screenplay race when his novel Election was adapted by the Payne and Taylor team; this year he teamed with former adaptation nominee Todd Field (In the Bedroom) for the big screen treatment of his own novel, Little Children. This well-respected drama is precisely the sort of small, character-driven film that misses out on Best Picture but is easily embraced by the Writers’ Branch. Another film that hasn’t a prayer for Best Picture but has proven a strong screenplay contender is Jason Reitman’s Thank You For Smoking, a particular feat of adaptation in that he took a non-fiction book and spun it into a narrative. (Reitman, the 29-year-old son of Ivan, was the kid at the beginning of Ghostbusters II who says, “My dad says you guys are full of crap,…and that’s why you went out of business.”) No other script is heavily favored, so the last two could be Borat, The Devil Wears Prada, Dreamgirls, or Notes on a Scandal. Borat is unlikely, considering how much of the film was comprised of unscripted interviews. (It’s also barely an adaptation, since the “story” in the film has almost nothing to do with the character’s previous escapades on HBO’s Da Ali G Show.) Scandal scribe Patrick Marber, previously a non-nominee for adapting his own stageplay Closer, may befall the same fate if the Writers’ Branch finds Scandal to be as chilly as Closer. I despised The Devil Wears Prada, but apparently no one else did, and any time a film adaptation is declared superior to its source material, it is a force to be reckoned with; a WGA indicates this sleeper hit will score a nod for Aline Brosh McKenna. Dreamgirls could grab the last spot as part of its looming sweep; its scribe, Bill Condon was last nominated for re-imagining Chicago for the screen, and a previous winner for Gods and Monsters. The writing awards often include a left-field candidate, so surprises could be in the form of The Last King of Scotland, A Prairie Home Companion, The Painted Veil, or the just-barely-released-in-2006 Children of Men.