The selection follows shortly after A Tin of Paint was also named a quarterfinalist at Scriptapalooza 2007, another top Hollywood contest. In addition to A Tin of Paint, Nicholl judges rated a second Johnson screenplay, The Last Marine, among the top 15% in this year's competition.
The Nicholl Fellowship is regarded as Hollywood's most important contest identifying its best new writers. Recent alumni include Ehren Kruger (Arlington Road; The Ring; The Brothers Grimm); Susannah Grant (Erin Brokovich) and Doug Atchison (Akeelah and the Bee).
Chosen from over 5000 entries by some of the world's best emerging screenwriters, A Tin of Paint is set against the backdrop of the 1952 riots in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth. These marked the first anti-apartheid uprisings following the start of the ANC's defiance campaign, led by Nelson Mandela. The screenplay has drawn positive industry comment, with one US reader calling it "a skilful, morally complex dramatisation of a race riot, told with sincerity and urgency."
Johnson developed the script after being approached by Cape Town filmmaker Roy Zetisky. "Roy's spent the past decade piecing together witness accounts of the uprising," says Johnson. "This project is very much driven by his commitment to bring it to screen as director."
Zetisky says A Tin of Paint is an unusual slice of history, which needed to be told: "Years ago, I was approached by a leader of the New Brighton community to make a movie about a riot that was triggered by a bizarre event – and which ultimately changed the future for all South Africans.”
After many years of research, Zetisky says the story is close to his heart. "When I met Paul, I instinctively knew I'd found the screenwriter to give this profound story the treatment it deserved. He has lived up to all my expectations and I'm ecstatic my belief in him as a great screenwriter has been borne out by some of the industry's top competition judges."
Zetisky is currently raising finance for the film from local and international investors. "Hopefully, the screenplay's competition performances will help accelerate that process," he says.
Johnson's latest short-listing concludes a remarkable rookie year for the self-trained 38-year old, who quit a marketing career in 2006 with "an overwhelming compulsion to write movies".
In February this year, director Gus van Sant named Johnson's first feature screenplay, The Last Marine, one of the winning Top 10 finalists at the American Zoetrope Screenplay Awards. In the same month, Johnson's modern-day Western, Vengeance Valley, was named a finalist in the US's 2007 Screenplay Festival. His first attempt at scriptwriting, a Law & Order TV episode, entitled "Malicious Intent" (written in May 2006) saw him named the only non-US semi-finalist at the 2006 Austin Film & TV Festival. This quick succession of results on the US competition circuit led to one industry website recently naming Johnson "among the film industry's best new screenwriting talents".
