‘I Love You Phillip Morris’ and ‘Please Give’ unexpected 2011 WGA nominees

The Writer’s Guild of America announced the 2011 WGA Awards nominees this morning and as expected, some major pictures were denied recognition because of strict eligibility rules.  “The King’s Speech,” “Another Year,” “Winter’s Bone,” “Blue Valentine” and “Toy Story 3” were not in the running, but that only left the door open to surprise nominees “Please Give” in the Original Screenplay race and “I Love You Phillip Morris” in the Adapted Screenplay category. 

A complete list of all of this year’s nominees is as follows:

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

“Black Swan”
Screenplay by Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin; Story by Andres Heinz

“The Fighter”
Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson

“Inception”
Written by Christopher Nolan

“The Kids Are All Right”
Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg

“Please Give”
Written by Nicole Holofcener

Lowdown: Interesting race.  No offense to Holofcener’s lovely work in “Give” (a favorite of this pundit), but any of the other nominees could easily win.  Guessing it will come down to “Swan,” “Kids” and “Inception” though.  

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

“127 Hours”
Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy; Based on the book Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston

“I Love You Phillip Morris”
Written by John Requa & Glenn Ficarra; Based on the book by Steven McVicker

“The Social Network”
Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin; Based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich

“The Town”
Screenplay by Peter Craig and Ben Affleck & Aaron Stockard; Based on the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan

“True Grit”
Screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen; Based on the novel by Charles Portis

Lowdown: Oh, do they even need to read off the nominees?  Just give the award to Sorkin and be done with it.  (Although it’s a bit surprising “Rabbit Hole” got snubbed here.)

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY

“Enemies of the People,”
Written, Directed, Filmed and Produced by Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath

“Freedom Riders”
Written, Produced and Directed by Stanley Nelson

“Gasland” Written and Directed by Josh Fox

“Inside Job”
Produced, Written and Directed by Charles Ferguson; Co-written by Chad Beck, Adam Bolt

“The Two Escobars”
Written by Michael Zimbalist, Jeff Zimbalist

“Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin” About Him)?”
Written and Directed by John Scheinfeld

Lowdown: A tad surprising “Waiting for Superman” isn’t here and that the ESPN produced and broadcast “Escobars” qualified. “Inside Job” or “Freedom Riders” probably has the best shot at winning.

The 2011 Writers Guild Awards will be held on Saturday, February 5, 2011, simultaneously at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel-Grand Ballroom in Los Angeles and the AXA Equitable Center in New York City.

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