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 Spike Jonze won the best original screenplay award for "Her,"
a tale set in the near future about a man in a romantic
relationship with a lifelike computer operating system.
"It's a high honor coming from writers," Jonze, 44, who also
directed the film, said accepting the prize.
"I was thinking about how in a way it's like an award for pain,"
he added. "It's a specific pain that writers know and it's the
highs and lows of sitting in there by yourself."
"Captain Phillips," inspired by the events of a cargo ship
hijacked by Somali pirates, earned writer Billy Ray the prize
for best adapted screenplay. The film was based on Richard
Phillips' 2010 memoir "A Captain's Duty" about the ordeal.
"I also owe quite a debt to Captain Richard Phillips, who
survived something that I know would've killed me," Ray said
accepting the award. "It's really Captain Phillips who wrote
this story; I just wrote it down."
It is the first Writers Guild Awards for Jonze and Ray.
Winners of the awards handed out by the Writers Guild of America
for original screenplay and adapted screenplay have gone on to
win the corresponding Oscar awards for eight of the past 10
years.
Neither "Her" nor "Captain Phillips" are considered
front-runners for the best picture Oscar, which will be handed
out on March 2.
Notably absent from nominees this year were dramas "12 Years a
Slave" and "Philomena," which are both nominated for best
adapted screenplay at the Oscars. The WGA is noted to have the
most rigorous eligibility qualifications of Hollywood award
shows.
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 The WGA Awards were handed out simultaneously at
ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York.
Alex Gibney, the writer and director of the documentary "We Steal
Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks," was given a special award for the
script that best embodies constitutional rights and civil liberties.
Gibney, 60, advocated in his acceptance speech for
the pardon of Chelsea Manning, the U.S. Army private who is serving
a prison term for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified U.S.
military logs and diplomatic cables to the website.
"Stories We Tell," about the writer-director Sarah Polley's family,
earned the WGA award for documentary screenwriting.
Writers for AMC Networks Inc's "Breaking Bad," a cable TV drama
series about a cancer-stricken chemistry teacher who begins making
illegal drugs to support his family, added to its victory lap of
awards winning for best TV drama and best TV drama episode.
The series also has won top awards at the Emmys last September and
last month at the Golden Globes, screen actors guild and directors
guild.
The writers of HBO political satire "Veep" won for best TV comedy
and Netflix Inc's political thriller "House of Cards" won for best
new TV series.
(Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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