ARRIAGA: What was that, a haiku?

[Laughter]

MORGAN: We had a moment afterwards, in the cutting room, where people concerned with the marketing of the film saw the film and said, "Well, it's a hell of a movie. And right now, hers [Helen Mirren's] is a good performance, but it's not an Oscar performance. So, Pete, would you write an argument, or a scene where she's angry, in the first act?" I said to Stephen [Frears], "I don't think that's the problem. I think the problem is, there isn't enough Tony Blair." Which made them slowly begin to weep, because Tony Blair -- no international audience. "More Helen, more Helen, more Helen. . . . " I explained to Stephen why, and Stephen put his foot down, and we shot four extra days of Tony Blair. The net effect was that by putting in counterpoints, his part feels no bigger, but her part feels enormous, without shooting a single extra frame of Helen Mirren.

ARNDT: I just want to jump in and say that everything that got added to the original script of "Little Miss Sunshine" was an improvement. There was nothing that I was forced to put in that I didn't think was better, and there was nothing taken out that I wanted to be in there.

MORGAN: Michael, you've got to learn that it's OK to be implicitly critical. Because you always jump back in with qualification.

ARNDT: [Laughs] I'm sorry. . That's so Hollywood. He's covering his ---

MORGAN: Yeah.

YAMASHITA: And I'm gonna do the same thing because Clint Eastwood, I have to say, I wish all directors were like him because he just said, "Go with the first draft." And don't you wish more directors were like him, where they actually trust the writer?

DEL TORO: You know that it is part of our craft to deal with compromising. I think that the craft of dealing with the compromise should be in theory a joined effort between the director and the writer, always.

MORGAN: I couldn't agree more. Writers are filmmakers! Why does everyone call a director a filmmaker and a writer a writer? Writers are filmmakers.

ARNDT: Guillermo [Arriaga], you said that in your contracts now, you're not allowed to be replaced. You're the writer on the movie.

How did you get that?

ARRIAGA: Stubbornness. I think the studios don't like it, but if they are hiring you it's because they trust you to say something original. If you're saying something original, how come someone is going to improve it? I don't understand. I think that when you are original you are presenting a particular world that cannot be changed. If you present yourself as a writer, you will be respected as a writer.

So why are writers so devalued in this industry?

MORGAN: Because they don't have greenlight power. I don't think it's anything else. I've never been disrespected. I've always been treated well, before any conspicuous success or anything. And I've always been paid well. I think it helps to mix and match. I know you write novels as well [motioning to Arriaga], and you [dDel Toro] by directing and producing. It certainly helps writing plays. I love writing television. You write television, you are the absolute voice. I don't think prolonged screenwriting is good for anybody's health. So I do think you've got to mix and match it, just because the way in which novelists are treated, the way in which playwrights are treated, the way in which television dramatists are treated -- it's empowering. And if you then bring that authority to screenwriting, and you look around until you find, "Ahh, here's a home. Here's a producer, here's a director, here's an institution to treat me just how I want to be treated."