Screenwriter Eric Roth on ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’…

…and a life of big scripts.

Coinciding with the release of Killers of the Flower Moon, yesterday the L.A. Times featured an article on Eric Roth who, along with Martin Scorsese, co-wrote the screenplay adaptation of the 2017 nonfiction book written by David Grann. Roth won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest Gump and has been nominated for his screenplays of The Insider, Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, A Star is Born, and Dune. Other screenwriting credits include Rhapsody in August and The Horse Whisperer.

Here are a few quotes from the Times article:

“I was always a good writer and I got things made, but nothing probably that very good until ‘Forrest Gump’. That opened up a whole world. I wouldn’t mind if I could go back to being 50 and know what I know now. I want to enhance whatever I’ve done.”

“I found this medium that could capture it all and give you an emotion and leave you with an image in your head. I think Francis Ford Coppola said that the great movies exist on some other side of the moon where Don Corleone is still alive. They just continue to go on and you know [inside] what those moments are. I have tried to do that. I think I’ve succeeded.”

“What you leave out is more important than what you leave in. The silence is telling. I’m not as good at that. I want to say things. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried to say less. Less is more. I’ve always believed in that but sometimes I run on. You have to keep people on the journey. It’s so hard to do well.”

There are some lines of movie dialogue that, when I first heard them, I said to myself: “Damn. I wish I’d written that.” Eric Roth wrote such a line in Forrest Gump.

“Sometimes I guess there’s just not enough rocks.”

What a perfect line.

Here are a few videos I’ve featured over the years on the blog.

Here is Eric Roth accepting his Oscar for Forrest Gump:

To read the Los Angeles Times article on Eric Roth, go here.

For 100s of interviews with screenwriters and filmmakers feature here on the blog, go here.