‘Looper,’ ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’ nab surprise WGA noms

The Writer's Guild of America has announced its nominees for Best Original, Adapted, and Documentary screenplays of 2012.

The notable omissions of the ineligible “Django Unchained” and “Les Miserables” aside made way for some less-touted scripts, such as John Gatins' for “Flight” and Paul Thomas Anderson's for the surprising awards underdog “The Master.”

The nominations for Rian Johnson's “Looper” and Steven Chbosky's “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” can only help those films' chances at Oscar nominations in their respective categories. In Original, longtime locks “Moonrise Kingdom” and “Zero Dark Thirty” unsurprisingly received nods from the guild, as did prohibitive Oscar favorite “Lincoln” and almost certain nominees “Argo” and “Silver Linings Playbook” in Adapted.

With the Oscars' wider pool of eligibility, expect to see “Django Unchained” bump one of the five nominees for Original Screenplay, though the field in Adapted Screenplay may be tougher for “Les Miserables” to break in.

The WGA's complete list of nominees for Best Original, Adapted, and Documentary Screenplays is as follows:

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“Flight”: John Gatins
“Looper”: Rian Johnson
“The Master”: Paul Thomas Anderson
“Moonrise Kingdom”: Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola
“Zero Dark Thirty”: Mark Boal

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“Argo”: Chris Terrio
“Life of Pi”: David Magee
“Lincoln”: Tony Kushner
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”: Steven Chbosky
“Silver Linings Playbook”: David O. Russell

BEST DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
“The Central Park Five”: Sarah Burns and David McMahon and Ken Burns
“The Invisible War”: Kirby Dick
“Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God”: Alex Gibney
“Searching For Sugar Man”: Malik Bendejelloul
“We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists”: Brian Knappenberger
“West of Memphis”: Amy Berg & Billy McMillin