..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

March 8, 2003

'The Hours,'
Gun Documentary Win Screenplay Honors
12:03 PM ET
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Social satirist Michael Moore's anti-gun documentary "Bowling for Columbine" and David Hare's dead-serious adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Hours" took top honors on Saturday at the Writers Guild of America Awards.

Moore's win for best original screenplay marked the first time a documentary feature has been so honored by the Writers Guild, and Hare's award for best adapted screenplay gives "The Hours" a major leg up on the competition for that prize in the Oscars this month.

The Academy Awards, the movie industry's highest honors, will be presented March 23.

Many members of the WGA, which represents U.S. film and TV writers, also cast ballots for the best-screenplay Oscars as members of the writers' branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Last year, both of the WGA's top winners, Julian Fellowes' "Gosford Park" for original screenplay and "A Beautiful Mind" by Akiva Goldman for adapted screenplay, went on to win the Oscars in those categories.

"Bowling for Columbine," which also was the first documentary feature ever nominated by the Writers Guild, earned an Oscar nomination as best documentary.

"The Hours," which stars Nicole Kidman as British novelist Virginia Woolf in a story of three women's lives intertwined around Woolf's novel "Mrs. Dalloway," also is in the Oscar running for best picture. Kidman was nominated for lead performance and Julianne Moore picked up a nomination as best supporting actress.

Hare, a British-born playwright known for works exploring the difficulty of moral and emotional expression, won acclaim at the Berlin Film Festival in 1985 as the writer and director of "Weatherby," a bleak story of a schoolteacher (Vanessa Redgrave) who witnesses a grad student's suicide.

His screenplay for "The Hours" beat out "Chicago," "Adaptation," "About Schmidt" and "About a Boy."

Moore, famed for populist attacks on corporate greed, sprang to public attention with his first film "Roger & Me." He recently made the bestsellers list with his book "Stupid White Men ... and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation."

His film edged out "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," "Far From Heaven," "Gangs of New York," and "Antwone Fisher."