We already had “The Bikeriders” in our Oscars predictions center as an adapted screenplay, but now Focus has confirmed to Variety that that’s where it will compete for Oscars. But it won’t be considered an adapted script everywhere. At the Writers Guild Awards, the film will still be slotted as an original piece of writing.
“The Bikeriders” was inspired by the photobook of the same name by Danny Lyon, and tells the story of the Vandals Motorcycle Club, a fictional version of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. It stars Austin Butler as a member of the motorcycle gang, with Tom Hardy as its leader. It actually premiered at the Telluride Film Festival back in 2023, but wasn’t released by Focus Features until June 2024 due to the 2023 labor strike by the SAG-AFTRA industry union of performers and artists.
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This isn’t the first time there has been confusion between what constitutes an original script and an adapted one. Just last year the toy-based “Barbie” spent most of the year in Best Original Screenplay races, competing there at the BAFTA Awards and the Writers Guild Awards. It even won the Critics Choice Award as an original script. But the motion picture academy deemed it an adapted screenplay, and it lost the Oscar to the satirical comedy “American Fiction” by Cord Jefferson.
That’s not the only time there has been disagreement between organizations about original vs. adapted scripts. For instance, 2016’s “Moonlight” was considered an adapted screenplay by the Oscars since it was based on the play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue” by Tarell Alvin McCraney. But that play was un-produced. It won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, but won the Writers Guild Award for Best Original Screenplay.
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What does that mean for the Oscar chances of “The Bikeriders”? Well, the film has faced an uphill battle in our odds for Best Adapted Screenplay, which are based on the combined predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users. But screenwriter and director Jeff Nichols has been in the awards conversation before, earning Critics Choice and Writers Guild bids for scripting the historical drama “Loving,” which also picked up a Best Actress Oscar nom for Ruth Negga. And “The Bikeriders” was well-received by film journalists with a score of 70 on MetaCrutuc and 80% freshness on Rotten Tomatoes.
Though it was released earlier in the year (June 2024, well before the glut of film festival favorites of the fall), it’s too early to count the film out of the awards conversation. Interesting things can happen when critics and awards groups like Critics Choice and the Golden Globes weigh in. And earlier releases can survive a glut of fall contenders just like “CODA” did three years ago when it won Best Picture in a stunning surge after an August release.
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