Scottish Athlete Becomes German ‘Quiet’ Scribe

Sports and pic biz both test endurance

There’s no logic to any showbiz career, but some paths are more surprising than others. Lesley Paterson, one of the screenwriters for the German-language “All Quiet on the Western Front,” is a world-champion triathlete, born and raised in Scotland.

Paterson — who competed 15 years as a pro and was a five-time world champ — says her career is more logical than it appears.

“I grew up an athlete and artist at the same time,” she says. “Screenwriting is an exercise in discipline, and dealing with failure. Success in sport and in filmmaking comes if you focus on the craft, not necessarily the outcome.”

“Western Front” is Germany’s international film Oscar entry; it’s also getting buzz in other categories, including screenplay adaptation by Paterson, Ian Stokell and director Edward Berger, working from Erich Maria Remarque’s classic.

In 2006, Paterson and Stokell read the novel and thought it was ripe for a modern interpretation, after the 1930 Oscar-winning film and a 1979 U.S. TV version.

They were stunned to discover nobody held the rights, since Universal had let them lapse.

The duo pitched their ideas to Remarque’s estate in 2006. They spent 16 years trying to get it off the ground; “It’s tough being on the outside, when you’re no-name writers,” Paterson says.

She and husband Simon Marshall, a neuroscience specialist then based in San Diego, “mortgaged our house and borrowed thousands to get this story told. So many writers and producers give up. But you just keep going.”

It’s another instance of when endurance training paid off.

“We went through many different directors and cast, and it was finance/no finance; we were kind of at our wit’s end.” However, the script reached German director Berger, who was enthused.

“We decided to pitch this as a German-speaking film at the Berlin Film Market in 2020,” she says. “Everyone wanted it” because of Berger’s reputation.

Paterson is appreciative of her director. “He elevated our script, which is always your hope as a writer. I think we were most blown away at how beautiful the film is. We were very pleased with the outcome.”