‘Moonlight,’ ‘La La Land,’ ‘Deadpool’ land WGA Award nods

Deadpool (Photo from Deadpool’s official Facebook page)

NEW YORK—Oscar favourites “Moonlight,” “La La Land” and “Manchester by the Sea” landed Writers Guild Award nominations on Wednesday, but so did the R-rated “X-Men” spinoff “Deadpool.”

The Writers Guild of America announced its nominees for the best screenplays of the year with selections that largely stuck to awards season regulars. The best original screenplay nominees were: Kenneth Lonergan’s script for “Manchester by the Sea,” Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight,” Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land,” Taylor Sheridan’s “Hell or High Water” and Jeff Nichols’ “Loving.”

While the WGA Awards can be strong predictors of the Academy Award screenplay nominees, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has already deemed
“Loving” (inspired by Nancy Buirski’s documentary) and “Moonlight” (based on Tarell Alvini McCraney’s play) adapted scripts.

The nominees for best adapted screenplay were: “Arrival,” penned by Eric Heisserer; “Fences,” by the late playwright August Wilson; “Hidden Figures,” by Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi; “Nocturnal Animals,” by Tom Ford; and “Deadpool,” by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The snarky superhero film, easily the most unexpected choice of the bunch, earlier scored two nods for this Sunday’s Golden Globes.

Nominees for best documentary screenplay went to “Author: The JT LeRoy Story,” written by Jeff Feuerzeig; “Command and Control,” with a telescript by Robert Kenner and Eric Schlosser, from a story Brian Pearle and Kim Roberts; and Alex Gibney’s “Zero Days.

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The WGA will name the winners to its 69th annual awards on Feb. 19 in simultaneous ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles. Television nominations were announced earlier.