Ava DuVernay’s ‘Origin’ Script Will Be Campaigned in the Best Original Screenplay Category at the Oscars

A wrinkle in the awards season has come out. Most Oscar pundits, including our own Joey Magidson, had Ava DuVernay competing in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for Origin. It made sense, considering it’s based on the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent, by Isabel Wilkerson. Well, considering it’s inspired by the book, but not an adaptation of the book, that’s no longer the case, going by the Writers Guild of America.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the WGA has ruled that the Origin script is original, not adapted. So, NEON is planning to campaign DuVernay in the Best Original Screenplay category at the Oscars (and elsewhere during the precursors). Whether the film becomes an Academy Award nominee or not remains to be seen (Joey at least seems to think it’s worthy of consideration, judging by his review here from TIFF), but update your charts accordingly. The movie is original, not adapted.

Source: THR