Guardians of the Galaxy Gets WGA Nomination

Posted on January 8, 2015

The Writers Guild West announced the nominees for the 2015 Writers Guild Awards. In the Original Screenplay category, the films Boyhood, Foxcatcher, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Nightcrawler and Whiplash will fight it out for the win.

Richard Linklater has really great buzz for Boyhood, which was shot over a twelve year period with all the same actors. Audiences actually watch the boy grow up over time, which is an amazing concept. But Linklater has some stiff competition. Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel is a quirky, comical film with a very dark, sad center. The script is really tight and very effective. Foxcatcher has lots of buzz for the acting performance by Steve Carrell, and E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman have an excellent shot here. Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler script is also in the mix, along with the Whiplash screenplay by Daiman Chazelle. We think this one will go to Wes Anderson or the Foxcatcher team of Max Frye and Dan Futterman.

In the Adapted Screenplay category, there is also some very stiff competition. The nominees are American Sniper, written by Jason Hall and based on the book by Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice; Gone Girl,which was adapted by Gillian Flynn based on her bestselling novel; Guardians of the Galaxy, written by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman and based on the Marvel comic by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning; The Imitation Game, written by Graham Moore and based on the book Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges; and Wild, screenplay by Nick Hornby based on the book by Cheryl Strayed.

This is one is very hard to call. Gillian Flynn is going to be hard to beat in this category: it's hers to lose, but American Sniper has an excellent script. The surprise nomination of Guardians of the Galaxy is a very pleasant surprise. We think James Gunn and Nicole Perlman deserve the win here for doing such an incredible job adapting a comic book that general audiences had never even heard of. The writing is really tight and the dialogue, character development and humor is flawless. They also turned the film into an international, monster hit.

Another big battlefield with very strong contenders are the television nominees. In the Drama category, Game of Thrones,which is written by David Benioff, Bryan Cogman, and D.B. Weiss based on George R.R. Martin's original books will face off against The Good Wife, House of Cards, Mad Men and True Detective. This category has such amazing writing in it, it's impossible to call. The Good Wife has picked up multiple awards over the years. Netflix's House of Cards is superbly entertaining television, and the second season had plenty of great writing moments.

Mad Men is nearing the end of its run, which may mean it's less likely to pick up some awards love this year. As for True Detective, Nic Pizzolatto did a stunning job with the screenplays. The atmosphere, the slow development of Matthew McConaughey's and Woody Harrelson's characters and that ending -- it will be hard to beat. As for Game of Thrones, we're die hard fans and think the writing is superb.

You can see all of the nominees here. The winners will be announced at the 67th annual Writers Guild Awards on February 14, 2015, which will held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.