8. Craig Borten, Melissa Wallack - Dallas Buyers Club
In some of my previous preview articles, I asserted my gut instinct that Dallas Buyers Club will likely serve only as a vehicle for nominations for its two primary actors, Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto, but if the film does find favor beyond the Actors branch, I expect the first category it might venture into is Best Original Screenplay. As I mentioned with American Hustle, the Academy often favors films and screenplays that have some basis in true events. The Academy also typically honors "issue films," especially issues that personally intersect with the lives of Hollywoodians such as the AIDS epidemic did in the 1980's. The plot of Dallas Buyers Club is loosely based in the life of Ron Woodruff. Woodruff was a heterosexual homophobe who contracted the AIDS virus through his habitual drug use in 1986. Given only thirty days to live, Woodruff, with the help of a transsexual business partner, starting illegally smuggling in non-FDA approved, but comparatively effective, drugs into the country and selling them to suffering AIDS patients through what became known as the "Dallas Buyers Club" (hence the name of the movie). The film is written by relative newbies Craig Borten and Melissa Wallack (who co-directed the Aaron Eckhart-starring comedy, Meet Bill), but this lack of experience is rarely an issue with the Writers branch, as evidenced by Agro screenwriter Chris Terrio's Oscar victory. What does tend to matter to the branch is: 1. How cleverly something is written and 2. How personal a story is. This second factor is what I believe led to Flight's Best Original Screenplay nomination last year (a lot was made in the Oscar blogosphere of writer John Gatins' personal battle with alcohol addiction), and it what I believe Dallas Buyers Club has most going for it. While the deceased Ron Woodruff obviously didn't write the story, the nature of the film's plot can't help but make the film feel very personal, which is what I believe the writers are likely to respond to. I'm kind of going out on a limb on this one, but don't be surprised (even if the pundits are) if Dallas Buyers Club sneaks into the Original Screenplay lineup come Oscar nomination morning.