by Bob Tourtellotte
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Writers Guild of America, which represents U.S. film and television writers, on Thursday picked nominees for 2002's top screenplays including for the first time ever a documentary, Bowling for Columbine, in the best original movie script category.
Joining it in the category for best original screenplay were box office smash, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, from writer/actress Nia Vardalos, Todd Haynes' drama Far From Heaven, Gangs of New York, written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan and newcomer Antwone Fisher's story about his own life, Antwone Fisher, the first film directed by superstar Denzel Washington.
The group for best adapted screenplay was led by musical Chicago, screenplay by Bill Condon, and drama The Hours, by David Hare, which have topped the early awards shows and nominee lists so far this year in Hollywood's awards season.
Those films were followed by other Oscar contenders, Adaptation, credited to Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman, About Schmidt from Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, and About a Boy by Peter Hedges, Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz.
The Writers Guild list comes out less than a week before nominations for Oscars, Hollywood's top film honors from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, are announced.
Each year, trade group nominees are lead candidates for Academy Awards and Columbine, Michael Moore's documentary on violence and America's gun culture is considered a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination in the documentary category.
But the Writers Guild nomination caught much of Hollywood off guard because documentaries generally are left out of the bigger races that focus on fictional stories.
Moore told Reuters he was both "shocked and honored" because he hadn't submitted the film himself. That was left to distributor United Artists, and the Writers Guild accepted it.
"Documentary writing is probably the hardest form of screenwriting because you can't really write until you shoot the film," he said. "I do an outline and I have a general idea of where I'm going, but I have to think and write on my feet when I'm in the field."
Columbine has proved hugely popular at box offices and has become the most successful documentary of all time in the United States, pulling in nearly $18 million in ticket sales.
Moore said he thinks the film strikes a chord with people in this country concerned about violence, and with audiences overseas who see their countries becoming too Americanized and encountering the same problems with guns and violence.
Newcomer Antwone Fisher, whose life story is about overcoming an orphaned childhood in which he was abused by foster parents, said he hoped the nomination would help boost his career and added it was especially nice to be coming from fellow writers.
"It was hard to write my story and difficult to be honest like that. "But it's worth doing, and now hearing this affirms it. My peers say I've done well enough to be among them," he said.
The Writers Guild also picks top work in television categories and nominated for best original screenplay for a TV movie or long format show were "The Gathering Storm" by Hugh Whitemore, "Door to Door" by William H. Macy and Steven Schachter, "Sins of the Father," by John Pielmeier and "Strange Relations" by Tim Kazurinsky.
Nominees for best adapted screenplay for TV movie or long form program were "Bastogne" by Bruce C. McKenna, "Last Call" by Henry Bromell and "Mark Twain's Roughing It" by Steven H. Berman.
Episodes from hit drama series "The West Wing," "Six Feet Under," "ER," "The Sopranos," "Resurrection Boulevard," and "The Education of Max Bickford" made the list for nominated TV dramas.
Three episodes of "Sex and the City," led the list of the nominated TV comedies, followed by shows from "Scrubs," "Frasier," "The Bernie Mac Show" and "Ed."
© 2003 Reuters