“Milk” screenwriter Dustin Lance Black wins two awards and the hearts of the black tie crowd in L.A.
By Alex Ben Block

Slumdog will be a real millionaire, $75m and counting

CENTURY CITY, CA. (Hollywood Today) – Remember the name of Dustin Lance Black not just because he was a double winner at the 2009 Writer’s Guild Awards where he stole the hearts of the black tie crowd; and not just because his original screenplay for “Milk” is now a heavy favorite to win an Oscar; but because Saturday night marked his coronation as an important and original new voice in Hollywood.

Simon Beaufoy was also honored for his Adapted Screenplay for “Slumdog Millionaire,” continuing that film’s sizzling award season win streak, and positioning it to play a leading role at the Academy Awards.

However, Beaufoy was on a plane to Europe for the BAFTA Awards on Saturday, so he wasn’t on hand to accept his award from the WGA at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel. That left it to Black to provide the evening’s emotional high point as his script for “Milk” was honored as Best Original Screenplay; and the boyish 34-year-old Texas native was presented the prestigious Paul Selvin Award, given by the Writer’s Guild board to a writer whose script embodies the spirit of the constitutional and civil rights and liberties which are indispensible to free writers everywhere.

By taking original screenplay honors, Black beat out the writer’s of the movies “Burn After Reading,” “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” “The Visitor” and “The Wrestler.”

In a stirring acceptance speech, Black told his story of growing up in a Mormon family in Texas, and early on realizing he was gay, which was anathema to much of his parent’s world. When he was a teen, his mother remarried a military man and moved to the San Francisco Bay area. It was there, when he was 13, that Black heard about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician. Before being martyred, Black says Milk taught that gays should come out of the closet in order to take their place in society.
“I’m a child of Harvey Milk,” said Black, “and I’m a child of the movies – both have taught me to dream big.”

Directed by Gus Van Sant, “Milk” tells the story of slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, a role for which Sean Penn is Oscar nominated, and his fight to establish the right of gay people to live openly. “Milk” is an Oscar nominee for best picture and Gus Van Sant is up for best director, but neither are favorites to win. However, in the original screenplay category, Black’s script is the favorite over the scripts for “Frozen River,” “Happy Go Lucky,” “In Bruges” and “Wall-E.”

Black spent more than eight years researching and writing “Milk,” which he originally wrote on spec.

Black used his acceptance speeches to decry the passage of California Proposition 8, which defined a marriage as the union of a man and a woman only. He said he tried to convince those who were promoting the ‘No” vote to show gay people in their ads, so voters would know whose life they were affecting. Black said he was told that research showed that was not the way to sway voters; but in the end the measure won anyway and protests erupted in the gay community.

“In the days after Proposition 8 we saw thousands rise up,” said Black. “They were out in the streets because it was time to give (the gay movement) a face…That has been inspiring.”

Black pushed for federal legislation that would give gays and lesbians full civil and legal rights. He said that it has been proven in women’s right, in the battle over gun control and the black civil rights movement that there can never be a successful movement that brings real change when it is done state by state. Rather there must be legislation on a federal level so that all Americans enjoy the same civil liberties.

He also said he wished they had released “Milk” a year earlier because he believes that it might have helped get out a more positive message. In an article about Black in the guild’s “Written By” magazine distributed at the dinner, Black said: “I can only hope and pray that this wasn’t the last fight, and that in the future fights this film’s history and Harvey’s lessons will help.”

Black, who is a UCLA film school graduate, said he will soon branch out from writing to directing. He plans to make his debut behind the camera with his original script, “What’s Wrong with Virginia,” starring Jennifer Connelly and, as he revealed on Saturday, Liam Neeson. He also revealed that he is working on it with producer Christine Vachon of Killer Films, whose credits include “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Party Monster.” “Virginia” doesn’t yet have a distributor.

Black will also reteam with his “Milk” director Gus Van Sant as writer on a movie version of Tom Wolfe’s hippie era classic, “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.”

Black started his career as an art director before moving on to direct documentaries, commercials, music videos and for the BBC series “Faking It.” That and his Mormon background won him an assignment writing for the HBO series “Big Love.” His short film “Something Close To Heaven” won recognition and a place in AMC’s “Five Filmmakers To Watch” TV special.

The WGA held separate ceremonies on Saturday in Los Angeles and New York. In L.A., Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) was the M.C. and presenters included Josh Brolin, Steve Carell, Frank Langella, Jon Hamm, Sarah Silverman, Bryan Cranston, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sandra Oh, Dennis Haysbert, Taraji P. Henson, Garry Marshall, Zach Braff and Jamie Lee Curtis..

In New York the M.C. was John Oliver of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and presenters included Philip Seymour Hoffman, Talia Balsam, Judah Friedlander, Gilbert Gottfried, Bill Irwin, Jack McBrayer, S. Epatha Merkerson, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.

Another emotional highlight in Los Angeles was the presentation of the Valentine Davies Award in recognition of contributions to the entertainment industry and the community to Carl Reiner. Both father and son paid tribute to Estelle Reiner, who passed away at age 94 this past October after 65 years of marriage to Carl Reiner, for having given them a social conscience. It was Estelle who had a memorable scene in her son’s 1989 romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally” as the lady in the deli who overhears Meg Ryan’s character faking an orgasm and says, “I’ll have what she’s having.”

A low point in the evening came when presenter Bryan Cranston (the dad on “Malcolm In The Middle”) announced he had learned something after eating the asparagus which came with dinner: “It take eight minutes before my urine starts to smell like asparagus.”

Here is a list of the movie winners:
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY – “Milk,” Written by Dustin Lance Black, Focus Features
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY – “Slumdog Millionaire,” Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy, Based on the Novel Q and A by Vikas Swarup, Fox Searchlight Pictures
DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY – “Waltz with Bashir,” Written by Ari Folman, Sony Pictures Classics

The Writers Guild of America, East presented special honors to: John Patrick Shanley – Ian McLellan Hunter Lifetime Achievement Award; Norman Stiles – Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence; The Committee To Protect Journalists accepted by Board Chairman Paul Steiger and Executive Director Joel Simon – Evelyn F. Burkey Award for contributions bringing honor and dignity to writers everywhere; Chris Albers and Tom Fontana – Jablow Award for devoted service to the Guild; and Sarah Tobianski – John Merriman Award for Study of Broadcast Journalism at American University. In addition, the Writers Guild of America, East Foundation presented the first Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship in Screenwriting to Sara Van Acker of New York University.

The Writers Guild of America, West presented special honors to: William Blinn – Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television; Dustin Lance Black (Milk) – Paul Selvin Award; Carl Reiner and Victoria Riskin – Valentine Davies Award; Larry DiTillio – Morgan Cox Award; and Suso D’Amico for the WGAW’s first-ever Jean Renoir Award for Screenwriting Achievement.