USC Scripter Awards: ‘One Battle After Another’ and ‘Death by Lightning’ Take Top Honors

The writers of the feature film One Battle After Another and the TV series Death by Lightning, as well as the authors of the written works from which they were adapted, were recognized with the top prizes at the 38th USC Scripter Awards, a black-tie affair held in the Town & Gown ballroom on the campus of USC, on Saturday night.

One Battle After Another was adapted by Paul Thomas Anderson from the 1990 novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. Death by Lightning, a limited series that was adapted from the 2011 nonfiction book Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard, was written by Mike Makowsky.

Anderson previously was Scripter-nominated for 2007’s There Will Be Blood and 2014’s Inherent Vice, the latter of which also was adapted from a Pynchon novel. Makowsky previously was nominated for the film adaptation Scripter Award for 2020’s Bad Education.