One Battle After Another and Death By Lightning Take Home USC Scripter Awards
Screenwriters and authors behind Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another and Netflix’s limited series Death By Lightning received top honors on Saturday night at the 38th USC Libraries Scripter Awards.
The USC Librarians grant this award to both the original author and the writer of the adapted screenplay, recognizing their collaborative contributions.
In the film category, Anderson and original author Thomas Pynchon took home the award for One Battle After Another, a multifaceted crime drama inspired by Pynchon’s 1990 novel. This recognition adds to the film’s accolades, which include wins at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards, as well as 13 Oscar nominations.
Previously, Anderson and Pynchon were nominated for the USC Scripters in 2014 for Inherent Vice, a project also adapted from one of Pynchon’s novels.
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One Battle After Another triumphed over fellow contenders including Frankenstein, Hamnet, Peter Hujar’s Day, and Train Dreams.
In the episodic series category, screenwriter Mike Makowsky and author Candice Millard were honored for Death by Lightning, adapted from Millard’s nonfiction book, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President. The four-episode Netflix series explores the events surrounding the assassination of President James Garfield, played by Michael Shannon, by Charles Guiteau, portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen.
The series topped a list of nominees that included contributors to Dark Winds, Dept. Q, Slow Horses, and Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light.
The evening’s black-tie ceremony, hosted by USC Libraries Dean Melissa Just at the university’s Town and Gown ballroom, also featured crime writer Michael Connelly receiving the USC Libraries Scripter Literary Achievement Award. Actor Titus Welliver, known for portraying Connelly’s iconic character Harry Bosch on Prime Video, presented the honor.
