Paul Ian Johnson

Screenwriter

Born in South Africa

In 2006, Paul Ian Johnson abandoned a 15-year marketing career to pursue a driving ambition to write movies. Within three months, his Law & Order spec episode "Malicious Intent" saw him named the only non-US semi-finalist in the TV Drama category at the 2006 Austin Film & TV Festival. In February 2007, Paul became the first African screenwriter to make the Top 10 at Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest, when director Gus van Sant selected his first feature screenplay The Last Marine, an Alaska-set modern-day Western. Later that year, Paul became the highest-placed South African for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' prestigious Nicholl Fellowship, when he was named a semi-finalist for A Tin Of Paint (a feat repeated two years later with his Congo-genocide script, In The Garden Of The King). Francis Ford Coppola also selected A Tin of Paint into his Top 10 for the 6th American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest, making Paul the only emerging screenwriter to have made the Zoetrope Top 10 twice. In 2007, Paul's first stage play, False Witness, won Best Play at the Western Cape Festival of Contemporary Theatre and proceeded to be named Joint Winner at the PANSA / NLDTF National Festival of Contemporary Theatre Readings, earning warm critical praise, as well as the coveted Audience Award. Paul's 13-episode TV series, Malicious Intent, was selected for development by Telkom Media, before the South African broadcaster's financial difficulties caused it to shelve its drama plans. Concluding a Hollywood option on The Last Marine in 2009, Paul has quickly become one of South Africa's most sought-after screenwriters, with a number of local and international projects, including Winnie (with Andre Pieterse and Darrell Roodt), In The Garden Of The King (MIA Films), A Tin of Paint (Moonlighting Films), several high-profile book adaptations and a major bio-pic for Cape Town and L.A.-based Memetic Films.