‘Million Dollar Baby’ wins USC award

updated 7:57 p.m. ET Jan. 14, 2005

LOS ANGELES - Clint Eastwood’s boxing drama “Million Dollar Baby” won this year’s University of Southern California Scripter Award, an honor bestowed by The Friends of the USC Libraries for the best adaptation of a book or short story to film.

The screenplay is based on the book “Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner” by the late F.X. Toole, who worked as a boxing manager. It was adapted for the screen by Paul Haggis.

“’Rope Burns’ represents some of the best writing ever done about boxing, and Paul Haggis has adapted it with intelligence, passion and great deftness,” the award selection committee said Friday.

The movie about an aging boxing trainer and a female boxer was directed by Eastwood, who stars with Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman. It has been nominated for several awards and is considered a top contender at the Oscars.

The other finalists for the Scripter Award were “The Bourne Supremacy,” “The Door in the Floor,” “Friday Night Lights” and “Sideways.”

The award will be presented Feb. 20.

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