“Conclave” was declared the winner Saturday of the 37th annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, which honors writers of adapted screenplays and the original works on which they are based.
In his acceptance speech, Peter Straughan said, “Adaptation is a really strange process, you’re very much the servant of two masters. In a way it’s an act of betrayal of one master for the other.”
Straughan added, “You start off with a book that you love, you read it again and again, and then you end up throwing it over your shoulder.” He thanked Robert Harris, the author of the novel for being “so kind, so generous, so open throughout.”
In the television category, “Say Nothing,” beat out “Baby Reindeer,” “Ripley,” “Shogun” and “Slow Horses.”
Writer Joshua Zetumer said, “Projects like these reminded me of why I wanted to become a writer when I was sitting in USC’s Leavey Library dreaming of becoming a screenwriter. If you fell in love with movies, or fell in love with TV, chances are you fell in love with something dangerous.”
Finalists for the awards were chosen from a field of 42 film and 66 television adaptations, according to USC Libraries. The finalists were chosen by a selection committee chaired by Howard Rodman, USC professor and past president of the Writers Guild of America, West.
Here is the list of winners:
FILM
— Peter Straughan for “Conclave,” based on the novel by Robert Harris
TELEVISION
— Joshua Zetumer for the episode “The People in the Dirt” from “Say Nothing,” based on the nonfiction book “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland” by Patrick Radden Keefe