“The Bikeriders” is taking a trip from original to adapted screenplay Oscar consideration.
Focus Features’ drama, directed and written by Jeff Nichols, will compete for the Academy Award in the best adapted screenplay category, Variety has learned exclusively.
The movie stars Austin Butler, Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy. It premiered at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival, garnering rave reviews despite the ongoing Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild strikes. Initially scheduled for release by 20th Century Studios on December 1, 2023, the film’s launch was delayed. Focus Features later acquired the project and released it in June. Before this acquisition, Variety exclusively confirmed that although the film draws inspiration from Danny Lyon’s iconic photobook, it was initially positioned as an original screenplay. However, those plans have shifted.
Read: You can see Academy Award predictions in all 23 categories on one page on the Variety Awards Circuit: Oscars.
“The Bikeriders” tells a fictionalized story based on the Midwestern motorcycle club documented in Lyon’s photographs. The narrative spans over a decade, offering a deep dive into the lives of the club’s members. Lyon’s book, first published in 1968, features black-and-white photographs alongside interviews he conducted with Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club members between 1963 and 1967. Notably, “The Bikeriders” is still considered an original screenplay by the WGA and will compete for a nomination in the upcoming WGA Awards.
In addition to vying for adapted screenplay, Focus Features is submitting the film for other prestigious Oscar categories, including best picture, actor for Butler, actress for Comer, and supporting actor for Hardy. Several of Nichols’ longtime collaborators are also in contention: Adam Stone for cinematography, Julie Monroe for editing, Chad Keith for production design, and Erin Benach for costume design.
“This is the most complex script I’ve ever written,” Nichols told Variety in a 2023 interview. “What I love is narrative structure. It’s a book of photographs with interviews and anecdotes, and I placed those throughout the script. If that falls into one category or another, so be it. I’m proud that I took something without a full narrative structure and created one. To take words and images and evoke a sense of nostalgia, a time and place, is difficult.”
The Academy’s Writers Branch committee determines which films qualify for each category, independent of WGA rulings. This practice has led to notable shifts in screenplay classifications over the years. For instance, in 2016, the Academy reclassified “Moonlight” from original to adapted even though the play it was based on had not been published. More recently, Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s “Barbie” script was moved to adapted despite an appeal from the filmmakers due to the existence of 47 previous Barbie movies.
Nichols has faced similar category reassignments before. His 2016 biographical drama “Loving,” which followed the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving’s historic fight for interracial marriage rights, was campaigned as an original screenplay. However, the Academy shifted it to the adapted category despite Nichols citing the documentary “The Loving Story” by Nancy Buirski as source material. It wasn’t subsequently nominated, but star Ruth Negga did garner a nomination for best actress.
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Other films this season are also expected to experience category shifts. Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical “Emilia Pérez” may go from original to adapted screenplay. Audiard developed the film’s screenplay from what was initially intended to be an opera libretto in four acts. The title character was inspired by a chapter from Boris Razon’s 2018 novel “Écoute.”
This goes back to a long-standing debate on what could and should be classified as an original vs. adapted. However, based on previous decisions, the Writers Branch hasn’t always shown consistency in this area. Stephen Gaghan’s “Syriana” (2005), based on Robert Baer’s memoir “See No Evil,” was moved from adapted to original because of significant deviations from the book. However, Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood” (2007) and Tony Kushner’s “Lincoln” (2012) remained in the adapted category despite their limited similarities to their respective source materials, Upton Sinclair’s “Oil” and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals.” And let’s not forget all sequels, even if based on an original film, have nearly always competed as adapted (i.e., “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story,” “Before Sunset,” and “Before Midnight”).
We’ll see if more scribes are forced to make a move in the awards race.
