Screenwriters roundtable

Screenwriters Michael Arndt ("Little Miss Sunshine"), Guillermo del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth"), Peter Morgan ("The Queen") and Iris Yamashita ("Letters From Iwo Jima") were splayed across a lounge at the Writers Guild headquarters in Beverly Hills. They had just come from the official academy nominees luncheon and appeared relaxed and chatty, if a little bewildered by the attention.

These original-screenplay Oscar nominees -- the first time for each -- were invited to discuss their craft, their nominations and the state of screenwriting. But as they waited idly for the fifth nominee -- Guillermo Arriaga, still doing interviews at the hotel -- to show up, Morgan and Del Toro slipped into a duet of playful imitation of the "Babel" screenwriter.

Screenwriting is the most solitary of filmmaking roles, but assemble a group of these talented craftsmen and the results are as combustible as they are insightful.

Morgan (a Brit doing a Mexican accent): "Research? I spit on your research!"

Del Toro (a Mexican doing a Mexican accent): "Structure? I do not need structure."

(True to Arriaga or not, it was entertaining, and a reminder never to be the last one to arrive.)

Screenwriting is the most solitary of filmmaking roles, but assemble a group of these talented craftsmen and the results are as combustible as they are insightful.

There has been talk of a "crisis" in storytelling. Now that the types of stories you've all told in these scripts are being honored, do you feel that there is greater hope?

ARRIAGA: I think that the capacity of fictionalizing life is diminishing. It's less and less and less, because we are losing our inner life. We are losing our capacity of dialogue, of understanding human beings. We are more and more alienated, and the more alienated a society is the more difficult it is to fictionalize something.

DEL TORO: I think that the problem you have with the screenplay is a particular problem of the form. When you toil on a screenplay, you come out with a document that most people refuse to read. It's not an easy form to write or to read. I think there are millions of stories, but the people that can tell them are choosing other forms. They're choosing a novel or a poem or something else, they're not choosing screenplay. I enjoy reading screenplays, in the same way that I enjoy listening to soundtracks. I have read screenplays, unproduced, that are beautiful pieces of writing, gorgeous. You see it and you see the movie. But it's very rare.

YAMASHITA: I think the problem is also the system, because the studio system encourages the non-original. Everything is an adaptation or something that they're familiar with, and you come up with something that they're unfamiliar with and they don't know what to do with it. Most of you are more established and it may be easier for you, but I think for a lot of newcomers, like me, it's very difficult to get your original screenplays made.

MORGAN: I don't know why we're all so down on ourselves. I don't think it's so bad. I don't think there are many good directors -- why don't we talk about that?

[Everyone laughs]

MORGAN: What I mean is, exceptional talent is rare, in all fields.

Although there is something about screenwriting -- as opposed to directing -- that many, many people walk around thinking that they could write one.