Authors join film nominees

Just so no one forgets that some top films of 2005 were actually based on er, books, with characters created by er, authors, USC on Friday announced this year’s nominees for the USC Scripter Award, the only film award this season that not only mentions the screenwriter, but also includes the creator of the original source material.

The nominees are: author Annie Proulx and screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana for “Brokeback Mountain”; biographer Gerald Clarke and screenwriter Dan Futterman for “Capote”; spy-meister John le Carre and screenwriter Jeffrey Caine for “The Constant Gardener”; graphic novelists John Wagner and Vince Locke and screenwriter Josh Olson for “A History of Violence”; and former CIA operative Robert Baer and screenwriter Stephen Gaghan for “Syriana.”

-- Rachel Abramowitz