
The USC Scripter award, given to the year's best screenplay
"adapted from a literary source," is seen as a good indicator of what of screenplay is likely to take the
Oscar home in the adapted category (last year, for example,
Million Dollar Baby won both). This year, however, nervous studios
will have to wait just a little longer to find out who's in the lead: there was a tie.
Dan Futterman's adaptation of
Gerald Clarke's Truman Capote biography, and
Stephen
Gaghan's screenplay for
Syriana -
adapted from
See No Evil, by
Robert Baer - have the same
number of votes; a winner will be determined in a runoff vote on Wednesday.
As the
Guardian
article linked below points out, whether it wins or not, this is more good news for
Capote,
which continues to gain ground on presumed Oscar front runner
Brokeback Mountain. That said, of course, we'll know a whole lot
more about who's really in the lead by this time tomorrow, after the Golden Globes have been handed out.