By Jay A. Fernandez

I was going to tell you about this amazing annual Writers Guild Foundation event, Beyond Words, taking place in two weeks. But it sold out today in an hour.

That’s probably because the panel, comprised of 2010 Oscar- and WGA Award-nominated screenwriters, is scheduled to include Scott Cooper (”Crazy Heart”), James Cameron (”Avatar”), Mark Boal (”The Hurt Locker”), Alex Kurtzman (”Star Trek”), Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner (”Up in the Air”), Geoffrey Fletcher (”Precious”), Scott Neustadter (”(500) Days of Summer”) and Jon Lucas & Scott Moore (”The Hangover”). Additionally, the WGA got little-known screenwriter Judd Apatow (”Funny People”) to moderate again this year.

The event is at the Writers Guild Theater on Doheny February 18, but good luck getting in. The WGA says it may do a wait list at the door on the night of the event, but not to hold your breath. The guild does typically put the event on a DVD, so you can look for that instead.

The next WGF event features writer-director-producer Barry Levinson, Feb. 22 at the Writers Guild Theater. Looks like you can still get into that one. Levinson, whose writing credits include “Silent Movie,” “High Anxiety,” “…And Justice for All,” “Diner,” “Avalon,” “Sleepers” and “Liberty Heights,” is receiving the WGA’s Screen Laurel Award this year. He also won an Oscar for directing “Rain Man.”

By Jay A. Fernandez

For anyone still looking for a cool Thursday night activity, Humanitas is presenting a killer writers panel to benefit the Writers Guild Foundation tonight.

Called “Writing in a Time of War,” the event features recently Oscar-nominated screenwriters Mark Boal (”The Hurt Locker”) and Alessandro Camon (”The Messenger”), as well as Kimberly Peirce (”Stop Loss”) and Evan Wright (”Generation Kill”). My buddy John Horn from the L.A. Times is moderating.

It starts at 6:45 pm at the WGA headquarters at 7000 West Third Street. And yes, there will be wine and cheese and dessert.

If that’s too hardcore for you, the WGF is sponsoring another event next Thursday, Feb. 11, on writing movie musicals. Leslie Dixon (”Hairspray”), Winnie Holzman (”Wicked”), Stephen Schwartz (”Wicked”) and Irene Mecchi (”The Lion King”) and Bill Kelly (”Enchanted”) are all scheduled to appear.

By Jay A. Fernandez

If you’re looking for more juicy background on “The Hurt Locker,” screenwriter Mark Boal will be speaking at WGA headquarters next month as part of the Writers Guild Foundation’s great “Writers on Writing” speaker series.

The event is Wednesday, January 13 at 7:30 pm and non-WGA members can get in for $20. Film writer and critic F.X. Feeney is moderating, as usual.

Boal has been a journalist for a dozen years. As most people know by now, the germ for “Locker” came from an assignment he took on to embed with a bomb defusal unit in Baghdad. The limits of the single article provoked him to expand his experiences into the screenplay for “Locker.” His script has since been recognized by several critics groups as one of the best of the year, and it received a Golden Globe nomination Tuesday.

Boal’s reporting also provided the basis for Paul Haggis‘ “In the Valley of Elah,” an unjustly overlooked film that takes a Stateside angle on the effects that surviving danger and death in the field have on soldiers.

The WGF event seems like a great opportunity to ask Boal about his research methods and how to write films invested with real-world experience and real-world resonance. Boal also took on a producing role with “Locker” and maintained an unusual amount of control over the independent project.

Here’s a short video interview with Boal from THR’s recent round table in which he discusses the opening scene of “Locker” and what he was trying to achieve.