Edmund H. North co-wrote a script.
Colorado Territory (film) . Written by Edmund H. North and John Twist , and based on the novel High Sierra by W.R. Burnett , the film is about an outlaw who is sprung from jail to help pull one last railroad job . Edmund Hall North ( March 12 , 1911 -- August 28 , 1990 ) , was an American screenwriter who shared an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with Francis Ford Coppola in 1970 for their script for Patton . North wrote the screenplay for the 1951 science-fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still and is credited for creating the famous line from the film , `` Klaatu barada nikto '' . Patton (film) . It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner from a script by Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North , who based their screenplay on the biography Patton : Ordeal and Triumph by Ladislas Farago and Omar Bradley 's memoir A Soldier 's Story .