"Avatar" nominated by WGA for Best Original Screenplay. Pictured: l to r, Director James Cameron and star Sam Worthington.

The Writers Guild of America has announced their nominations for the best of the 2009 movies and there is an untraditional entry or two.

First of all Avatar, James Cameron’s box office behemoth of a film, has a nod for Original Screenplay. The Hangover, a comedy written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, also got nominated in the same category. They’re in interesting company, competing with the military and critically-acclaimed drama, The Hurt Locker and the Coen brother’s (Joel and Ethan) film, A Serious Man.

For Adapted Screenplay, the nominees were Crazy Heart, based on the Thomas Cobb novel and written by Scott Cooper along with the Nora Ephron screenplay, Julie & Julia, based on both Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme. Filling out the nods are Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire adapted by Geoffrey Fletcher; Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry’s baby in the hands of Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman and Up in the Air, Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner’s adaptation of the novel by Walter Kirn.

The doc screenplays were varied as well. Against the Tide, by Richard Trank, Capitalism: A Love Story by Michael Moore, The Cove by Mark Monroe, Earth Days by Robert Stone, Good Hair by Chris Rock, Jeff Stillson, Lance Crouther and Chuck Sklar with Soundtrack for a Revolution by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman completing the nominations.

The Writers Guild award winners will be announced Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at ceremonies being held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles and the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City.