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Hangover, Avatar, Star Trek Have the Write Stuff

By Marcus Errico and Gina Serpe / E!

Oscar could be shaping up for one helluva Hangover.

The hugely popular summer comedy could be shaking up the Academy Awards after scoring a big nomination today for the Writers Guild of America Awards, one of Hollywood's key tune-ups for the Oscars.

The script for The Hangover, by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, was one of five nominees for Best Original Screenplay, where it will go head to head with another blockbuster popcorn flick, James Cameron's Avatar. Rounding out the field are the screenplays for critical darling The Hurt Locker, the Coen brothers' A Serious Man and the indie charmer (500) Days of Summer.

Star Trek, meanwhile, beamed into the Adapted Screenplay race, where it will face off with usual suspects Precious and Up in the Air, along with a couple of more left-field nods: Crazy Heart and Julie & Julia.

But where was Inglourious Basterds? District 9? Up? The simple answer to the snubs is this...

Blame the WGA's ultrarestrictive eligibility requirements, which requires all nominees to be members of the scribblers union. Quentin Tarantino isn't, hence no nod for his Basterds. 

Likewise, esteemed writer Nick Hornby was ineligible for An Education, not because he's not a member of the WGA (he has been for 10 years), but because of a newly instituted rule that required him to also be a member of WGA Great Britain (which he wasn't at the time).

The same murky eligibility requirements also nixed The Fantastic Mr. Fox, District 9, A Single Man, The Road and Up.

Meanwhile, Michael Moore and Chris Rock are among the bold-face types bringing some sizzle to the traditionally staid documentary screenplay category.

Here's the complete list of nominees:

Original Screenplay:

• (500)Days of Summer, Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
• Avatar, James Cameron
• The Hangover, Jon Lucas & Scott Moore
• The Hurt Locker, Mark Boal
• A Serious Man, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

Adapted Screenplay:

• Crazy Heart, Scott Cooper; based on the novel by Thomas Cobb
• Julie & Julia, Nora Ephron; based on the books Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme
• Precious: Geoffrey Fletcher; based on the novel Push by Sapphire
• Star Trek, Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman; based upon Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry
• Up in the Air, Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner; based upon the novel by Walter Kirn

Documentary Screenplay:

• Against the Tide, Richard Trank
• Capitalism: A Love Story, Michael Moore
• The Cove, Mark Monroe
• Earth Days, Robert Stone
• Good Hair, Chris Rock & Jeff Stilson and Lance Crouther and Chuck Sklar
• Soundtrack for a Revolution, Bill Guttentag & Dan Sturman