14 DAY TRIAL // “12 Years a Slave” won Best Picture at this Sunday’s Oscars 2014, becoming the biggest winner of the night even though “Gravity” took home the most awards. It also landed writer John Ridley an Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay, and it seems that the win is object of a feud between Ridley and director Steve McQueen.
Above is a video of Ridley going up on stage to accept his award. You will notice that he doesn’t even shake hands with McQueen, who directed the film, but he does hug it out with David O. Russell, director of “American Hustle,” with whom he had quite a dispute several years ago, when they were working together on “Three Kings.”
He didn’t thank McQueen in his speech, and McQueen didn’t thank Ridley when he was up on stage to collect the Oscar for Best Picture.
Nikki Finke of Deadline says that she knows for a fact that there’s beef between these two because of a screenplay dispute, which could mean that McQueen wanted credit on the script (which would have made him an Oscar-winner too) but didn’t get it.
Whatever the case, it’s all that people are talking about right now online, especially since it was so obvious that there was something wrong. How else could this be explained? This is how McQueen clapped for Ridley when his name was announced.
My sources attributing John Ridley-Steve McQueen cold shoulder at Oscars tonight to dispute over screenplay credit.
— Nikki Finke (@NikkiFinke) March 3, 2014