Her film has just won seven Bafta, the UK equivalent of Caesars, and she is now targeting the Oscars on March 13 with nine nominations. Scottish screenwriter Lesley Paterson, 42, adapted the acclaimed WWI novel for the big screen Nothing is new in the west an anti-war mural told from the perspective of a young German soldier who could never have been shot without the physical effort of Lesley Paterson.
It all started in 2006 when she decided to buy the rights to the novel to adapt it to the big screen, signing a one-year contract, renewable for $10,000 a year if we want to keep the rights.
It wouldn’t have been a problem if the film had been shot straight away, but nobody wanted to fund a war film back then, and the screenwriter, who believed strongly in her project, was faced with her rights renewal bill alone. Alone and without money, but not without a solution. Because Lesley Paterson is not only a screenwriter: her other life is that of a great athlete who, when she signed the contract, was passionate about triathlon and therefore decided to use this passion to register for as many races as possible and win them paying for her scenario with their bonuses.
$200,000 in race awards in fifteen years
And she succeeded. In 2011 she won her first cross-triathlon world championship and a bonus of $10,000, then again in 2012, in two disciplines, $20,000, etc., to date she is a five-time world champion. “The hardestshe tells him BBC, It was in Costa Rica, 2016, the day before the race I fell off my bike, I broke my shoulder, I was about to retire. And then my husband said to me, ‘You know, you’re a very good one-armed swimmer, so give it a try.Indeed, that day Lesley Paterson suffered as never before, but against all odds she came first and won the $10,000 award that allowed her to retain the rights to adapt the novel.
The adaptation finally released on Netflix last year and now it shines at all the celebrations. A film about the First World War, against the war, particularly related to current events. “my goalthe screenwriter summed it up germanic, It aims to hold up a mirror to today’s world, to prevent yesterday’s horrors from repeating themselves and to bring about real change.“
