Mortal Kombat, Downsized, 30 Rock Among WGA New Media Noms

The Writers Guild of America East and West announced in October 2010 that for the first time in the organizations’ then 62 years of honoring excellence in film, television, and radio, the WGA Awards would also recognizing outstanding writing in new media.

The writers of Anyone But Me and 30 Rock’s Frank vs. Lutz online series were the honored inaugural recipients of two new awards added to the WGA’s 63rd annual ceremony. Susan Miller and Tina Cesa Ward took home a trophy evocative of a dorsal fin for Outstanding Achievement in Writing Original New Media (an award online originals) and Jon Haller received the same for Outstanding Achievement in Writing Derivative New Media (an award for the online companions to preexisting television shows, movies, or video games).

The WGA just recently announced the individuals and shows with the potential to follow in the aforementioned winners’ footsteps. The nominees in the new media category for the 64th annual WGA Awards include:

Outstanding Achievement in Writing Original New Media

• Aim High
  – Written by Heath Corson and Richie Keen
• Downsized – Written by Daryn Strauss
• Jack in a Box –  Written by Michael Cyril Creighton

Outstanding Achievement in Writing Derivative New Media

• Jack Donaghy: Executive Superhero – 30 Rock –  Written by Tom Ceraulo
• Mortal Kombat: Legacy – Written by Todd Helbing and Aaron Helbing
• Sons of Anarchy –  Written by Kurt Sutter & Gladys Rodriguez
• The Walking Dead – Teleplay by John Esposito, Story by John Esposito and Greg Nicotero

The winners of th WGA Awards will be announced at ceremonies held on Sunday, February 19, 2012, simultaneously at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles and at B.B. King Blues Club in New York City. Those winners (and the above nominees) are selected by a panel comprised entirely of Guild members judging solely on written material. Only programs containing “work that was written and produced under a WGA collective bargaining agreement, and for which the Guild
determined writing credits” were considered.