Game, set, match.
The Oscar season is over for “King Richard” screenwriter and Wilmington native Zach Baylin, who lost his Best Original Screenplay race at the 94th Academy Awards Sunday night.
The Tatnall School graduate lost out on the iconic golden statue for his first Hollywood screenplay and film, which was critically acclaimed and earned widespread award nominations.
He lost to Kenneth Branagh, who wrote and directed “Belfast.”
Paul Thomas Anderson (“Licorice Pizza”), Adam McKay (“Don’t Look Up”) and Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier (“The Worst Person in the World”) were also nominated.
“King Richard,” which stars Will Smith, tracks the true story of Richard Williams, the father of tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams, played by Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton.
While the film snagged plenty of honors this award season, Baylin’s nominations for best screenplay didn’t turn into wins for him at the Academy Awards, Writers Guild of America Awards, BAFTA Awards, Hollywood Critics Association Awards or others.
But that won’t slow Baylin down.
Baylin’s backstory:This Wilmington writer’s first major film stars Will Smith and is gaining major Oscar buzz
His next screenplay is as a co-writer of “Creed III,” starring Michael B. Jordan, who will be making his directorial debut. It is due in theaters on Thanksgiving.
Baylin’s road to the red carpet began in the Highlands neighborhood of Wilmington as the son of Jon and Sarah.
Baylin’s father is a clinical psychologist and his mother is a retired educator who taught English and history for 16 years at Tatnall before heading the Upper School there from 1995 to 2015.
After Tatnall, where he also played football, Baylin went to Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University where he was a film major and two-time Academic All-American wide receiver.
He then moved to New York to begin working his way into the world with early credits including art production assistant on “Dave Chappelle’s Block Party” documentary and a property master on the HBO series “Girls.”
“King Richard” was born in the fall of 2017 when Baylin, a tennis fan, was meeting with film producer Tim White in New York who mentioned he was headed to the U.S. Open later that day.
White had been toying with a feature film on Williams for years, but couldn’t find the right way into it. Baylin knew the basics of the Williams story, but once he reacquainted himself with it, he was hooked.
He wrote the script for White’s company Star Thrower and once Smith agreed to star, there was a bidding war for the $59 million drama and Warner Bros. won out.
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