Nominees for Writers Guild of America Awards Announced

Writer-directors James L. Brooks, John Boorman, Woody Allen, Bernardo Bertolucci and Stanley Kubrick were named Thursday as nominees for 1987 Writers Guild of America screenwriting awards.

Brooks (“Broadcast News”), Boorman (“Hope and Glory”), Allen (“Radio Days”), and Bertolucci (“The Last Emperor”) were selected, along with John Patrick Shanley (“Moonstruck”), in the best original screenplay category. Bertolucci’s co-writer on “The Last Emperor” was Mark Peploe.

Kubrick and his “Full Metal Jacket” co-writers Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford were nominated for best adapted screenplay, sharing the slate with James Dearden (“Fatal Attraction”), William Goldman (“Princess Bride”), Steve Martin (“Roxanne”) and David Mamet (“The Untouchables”).

There was a particularly crowded field in the adapted screenplay category and some big names and heralded contenders were left off.

Most conspicuous by their absence were Tom Stoppard, who adapted J. G. Ballard’s novel “Empire of the Sun” for Steven Spielberg, the late John Huston and Janet Roach, for their adaptation of the James Joyce short story “The Dead,” and John Briley, who fused Donald Woods’ two books about South African black leader Stephen Biko for Richard Attenborough’s “Cry Freedom.”