Apparently, the Writers Guild of America isn't afraid of Virginia Woolf.

David Hare's meditative adaptation of The Hours, featuring a prosthetic-nose-wearing Nicole Kidman as the famed author, earned the top prize at Saturday's 55th Annual Writers Guild of America Awards--one of the key pre-Oscar awards not won by Chicago.

Meanwhile, maverick filmmaker Michael Moore snagged Best Original Screenplay for his searing anti-gun documentary, Bowling for Columbine. That's not a misprint.

British playwright Hare bested the scripts from Adaptation, About Schmidt, About a Boy and Oscar favorite Chicago with his screenplay based on Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer-winning book about women in three different eras whose lives are profoundly affected by Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway.

"David Hare took very difficult material and, as one of our most skilled writers of English language, adapted it into a brilliant screenplay," Victoria Riskin, president of the Writers Guild of America West, said in a statement.

Hare has often garnered high praise for existential-style works that delve into complex emotional dilemmas, including depression and suicide. Most notably, his film Weatherby, a Pinter-esque tale that he wrote and directed about a schoolteacher who witnesses a grad student's suicide, won the Golden Bear, the top award at the 1985 Berlin Film Festival. (Not that he can't lighten up for a change; the scribe also directed an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles back in the early '90s).

For social satirist Moore, who shot to fame with 1989's controversial documentary Roger and Me and has been the thorn in corporations' sides ever since, his Bowling for Columbine became the first doc feature to ever be honored with the WGA's Best Original Screenplay trophy.

"Our members' appreciation of Michael Moore's clever, humorous and personal storytelling is a tribute to his vision and the power of his subject matter," said Riskin.

A hard-hitting and often hilarious exploration of gun culture in America, Bowling has earned rave reviews and grossed $18 million at the box office, not bad for a film costing just $4 million, let alone a documentary. Moore beat out the writers behind My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Far from Heaven, Antwone Fisher and Gangs of New York.

Unlike The Hours, Bowling won't have a chance to repeat come Oscar time. The doc is up for an Oscar in the Best Documentary category but not in the Original Screenplay contest.

On the tube side, the guild gave props to HBO for its telefilms The Gathering Storm and Band of Brothers, which earned Best Original and Adapted Long Form Screenplay awards, respectively. The WGA also singled out Frasier for Best Episodic Comedy and an episode of Futurama for Best Animation, while Late Night with Conan O'Brien took home Best Comedy/Variety Series.

The WGA East gave its Evelyn Burke Award to director Martin Scorsese, while Tinseltown scribes honored Mel Brooks with the Guild's Screen Laurel Award for his body of work and paid tribute to TV producer David E. Kelley's prolific career by giving him the Paddy Chayefsky TV Laurel Award.

The WGA Awards, voted on by 11,500 guild members and held simultaneously in New York and Beverly Hills, honor the best pen work of the year and are often a solid predictor as to who will go on to Oscar glory.

Last year's winning scribes, Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) and Julianne Fellowes (Gosford Park), won Academy Awards for Best Adapted and Original Screenplay , respectively. The year before that Traffic nabbed both the WGA prize and the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

This year's Academy Awards will be handed out on March 23.

Here's a complete rundown of the WGA winners:

MOTION PICTURE Original Screenplay: Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore Screenplay Adaptation: The Hours, David Hare, based on the book by Michael Cunningham

TELEVISION Original, Long-Form: The Gathering Storm, Hugh Whitemore Adapted, Long-Form: Bastogne (Band of Brothers), Bruce C. McKenna Episodic Drama: "Pilot," The Education of Max Bickford, teleplay by Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin Episodic Comedy: "Rooms With a View," Frasier, Dan O'Shannon, Lori Kirkland, and Bob Daily Comedy/Variety Special: The Kennedy Center Honors, Don Baer and George Stevens Jr., film sequences written by Sara Lukinson Comedy/Variety Series: Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Mike Sweeney, Chris Albers, Ellen Barancik, Andy Blitz, Kevin Dorff, Jonathan Glaser, Michael Gordon, Brian Kiley, Michael Koman, Brian McCann, Guy Nicolucci, Conan O'Brien, Andrew Secunda, Allison Silverman, Robert Smigel, Brian Stack, Andrew Weinberg Daytime Serials: The Young and the Restless, Kay Alden, Trent Jones, John F. Smith, Jerry Birn, Jim Houghton, Natalie Minardi, Janice Ferri, Eric Freiwald, Joshua McCaffrey, Michael Minnis, Rex M. Best Children's Script: Our America, Gordon Rayfield Documentary (current events): 9-11, Tom Foreman and Greg Kandra Documentary (other than current events): Monkey Trial, Christine Lesiak News (regularly scheduled): "Attack on America," Jerry Cipriano, Paul Fischer, Thomas Harris, Hugh Heckman, Bruce Meyer, CBS Evening News RADIO News (regularly scheduled): World News This Week, Stuart H. Chamberlain, ABC Radio Network News (analysis, feature or commentary: Pearl Harbor Day, Steve Gossett, CBS Radio Network