By Katherine Di Marino
The first day of the 5th edition of the Toronto Screenwriting Conference started with a bang and ended with a walk down memory lane.

Academy Award winner Michael Arndt started off giving a presentation called “Mistakes Made, Lessons Learned” originally created for Pixar as to the lessons learned during the three years it took them to write the screenplay for Toy Story 3.

He traced the story problems and how he and the story team overcame each of them by going back and looking at the franchise’s previous films and what made them successful. The process was accompanied by early story reels that brought the words and ideas to life. Seeing the familiar characters in such a raw and rudimentary fashion was a real treat.

Each segment in the presentation included the often rather harsh responses of the studio executives to the problems and solutions found. Arndt said he was never deterred by this process, and says he feels that all meetings should involve stakeholders in the room together, sharing thoughts and notes without being removed from the screenings.

It took months, even years, to get through some of the problems. But as long as the writing process was, solutions were always eventually found and the script eventually earned an Oscar nomination for Best Writing – Adapted Screenplay.

The last session of the day was a discussion moderated by Norm Wilner with writers David Webb Peoples and Janet Peoples. David is best known for his work on Blade Runner and Unforgiven, and he and his wife Janet collaborated on 12 Monkeys.

“Doesn’t believe anything good is ever going to happen,” Janet joked, with David following up by sharing his disbelief when he received the call to do a re-write on 1982’s Blade Runner. He recalled his initial excitement being dimmed somewhat by finding the script in great shape when he arrived at the Chateau Marmont to work, but with the studio’s encouragement, moved forward with polishing the now-classic film script.

1992’s Unforgiven was also a rollercoaster ride, he recalled, saying would read the script, think it was great, then pick it up again two years later would think it was shit. Apparently Clint Eastwood didn’t agree and made the iconic Western very true to the original screenplay.

One of the more interesting stories of the afternoon came during discussions of 1995’s 12 Monkeys and that David and Janet had been commissioned to write the script when they realized the rights to a short film which was to inspire the film had not been secured.

The French filmmaker was adamant Hollywood would never get its hands on his work. After being flown over and a lavish dinner put on for his benefit, he finally agreed but said “No lawyers” and signed a napkin to seal the deal. That napkin made it through the legal department of the studio and the two continued work on the script.

Up next: day two.