‘Origin’ Screenplay Considered Adapted By Academy Despite WGA Considering It Original

The executive committee of the Academy’s writers branch has decided that the script penned by Ava DuVernay for Origin is to be considered an adapted screenplay. The Writers Guild Of America initially decided that the screenplay was to be categorized as original. 

A similar choice was made for box office titan of 2023, Barbie, according to Hollywood Reporter, for the script written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach. Variety was the first to report on the choice for Barbie. 

Origin and Barbie will be in the running for an Oscar nomination for Adapted Screenplay alongside Oppenheimer, Poor Things, Killers Of The Flower Moon, American Fiction, The Zone Of Interest, and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. 

Origin will be competing against Barbie once again, along with Past Lives, The Holdovers, Maestro, May December, Saltburn, Air, and Rustin for a WGA award nomination. 

Origin was inspired by the 2020 book, Caste: The Origins Of Our Discontent, by Isabel Wilkerson. The book depicts prejudice within a wide variety of historical ranges, but Origin reportedly focuses on Wilkerson’s own path to connecting the situations. 

Aunjanie Ellis-Taylor of King Richard fame will portray Wilkerson within the film. On top of Caste being a best-seller in 2020, Wilkerson is also a recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for The Warmth Of Other Suns.