It's been said that history is written by the winners, and in today's episode, we're going to hear from the losers.

Howdy. I'm Jeff Goldsmith, and this is the Q&A. My agenda is simple. Each week I plan to bring you in-depth insights into the creative process of storytelling.

And by losers, I mean losers of World War I because all quiet on the Western Front is told from that perspective, which separates it from most of the World War I movies you would see.

Of course, the book is world famous and has given audiences for many years a perspective into the German mentality behind the lines of World War I.

And this new version is really a fantastic adaptation that gives even more

to the original story with the breadth of history and knowing that World War II was around the

corner, something that was not known when the book was originally written, and I'm very pleased

to have with us today the co-writers of this fine adaptation, Leslie Patterson, and Ian Stokel.

And without a doubt, they really wanted to make this movie, and it took them years to get it made,

and they ended up being Oscar-nominated, along with the film's co-writer-director, Edward Berger,

who ultimately did a rewrite on their script, and they supervised it, they worked as producers,

they collaborated with Edward, and this is a fascinating conversation about what it took to get

this adaptation made, so I know you'll dig this episode.

And speaking of things to dig, I hope you check out Backstory magazine over at Backstory.net.

You know, you could read us on a desktop or laptop or via our iPad app, Backstory. And folks, our Oscar issue is coming out any day now. And it's our 10th Oscar issue. And it's our 10th year of Backstory Magazine. So it all works out. If you've never read us, I hope you go check out the free issue at backstory.net or in our

apps, you could see what we're about. And look, it would really mean a lot to me for my

podcast listeners and iTunes and Spotify and for my YouTube watchers of the Backstory Magazine

YouTube page to support independent journalism by becoming subscribers.

So thanks for considering.

But now, without any further ado, let's jump right into our interview with co-writers Leslie Patterson and Ian Stokel about having their first screenplay produced, which became Oscar nominated for Best Picture and Oscar nominating them for best co-writers for

all quiet on the Western Front. Okay, Leslie, Ian, it's good to see you. How you doing?

Good. Awesome. We're using all of our technology today. Leslie's in a car, so this is all working.

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