WRITER PROFILE

It’s always great to get together with a large group of writers and investors and keep up to date on what’s new, the screenplay contest, any recent deals, new dealmaker contacts, agents or managers that are looking and simply encouraging everyone to keep going after every dream in this difficult industry. For the hard working writer we want to do as much as we can to continue the exposure and word of mouth in the investment circles of the industry. Another way we do this is with writer interviews that we send far and wide and showcase at all possible meetings and markets.

We want to encourage your writing spirit, motivate you and again give you the accolades you so deserve.

“Peace Pledge”

Written by George Johnson

What motivated you to become a writer?

I have always loved to read, and by the time I became an English Professor I knew the power of stories to change lives. Stories create empathy because you enter into someone else’s world and learn about their trials and tribulations, their flaws and strengths – in short, their humanity. Our society draws on stories to create meaning and significance, and thousands of stories together can bring about change. As an advocate for social justice for over 35 years, I know how much change needs to happen, and quickly. (I received the Y.M.C.A. Peace Medal in 2019 for my peace and social justice work and writing.) Since film can reach so many people of diverse backgrounds it has so much potential. On a personal level, my mother’s passing ten years ago spurred me on to write creatively as a kind of healing. She was a painter and so I had observed her creativity unfold over many years.

Starting on a blank page is not easy- where does your creativity come from?

Mostly it comes from curiosity about people, ideas, and stories. I was inspired to write Peace Pledge when I was researching the writer Aldous Huxley (of Brave New World fame) for a chapter in my book on Mourning and Mysticism in First World War Literature: Grappling with Ghosts. In the 1930s, Huxley was becoming increasingly anxious about the possibility of another war, to the point where he was suffering from writer’s block. He read about a remarkable Anglican priest, Canon Dick Sheppard, who had written to the papers asking men to send him a postcard pledging their opposition to war. Huxley did so, then met with the charismatic Sheppard, and became convinced of the need for a spiritual dimension in the pacifist fight against war, even though he had been an atheist. When Sheppard called for postcards (and basically launched perhaps the first social media campaign), initially he didn’t receive anything and was disheartened, but then the post office contacted him and asked him where he wanted the sacks of postcards delivered! Within a few months over 100,000 postcards had been sent and the Peace Pledge Union was born. It attracted many notables, including philosopher Bertrand Russell and A.A. Milne (of Winnie the Pooh fame), became the strongest pacifist movement in history, and still exists today in the U.K.. I was gripped by the story and knew that I had to write about it. One of the challenges was that, since the movement failed in its immediate aim, to prevent war, its story had been buried, so it took considerable research to piece together the peace story. Also, audiences know that the Second World War eventually happened, but of course people in the 1930s did not, and so I had to create that anxiety of not knowing what was coming next.

Do you write projects knowing that so many other factors need to happen to get it to screen and does that come into your project creation?

Definitely. I like to write large, uplifting stories with universal appeal and complex characters, some drawn from real-life. Peace Pledge is The King’s Speech meets Hacksaw Ridge, without the extreme violence of the latter. Dick Sheppard was made for the screen: charismatic, funny, a Shakespearian fool, a Don Quixote. King George V called Dick his “Charlie Chaplain” and tried (unsuccessfully) to prevent Sheppard from going to the front in WWI. The outpouring of grief at the untimely death of this popular parson in 1937 compares with that following Princess Diana’s death, and yet no one has heard of Dick Sheppard or the fascinating story of the Peace Pledge Union that he founded.

What is your dream for this project and what other ancillary revenue do you think it could generate? Please include script title in reply.

Do we need a compelling drama about peace in the current state of world affairs? I hope you will agree that we do (and also that films about individuals struggling to achieve peace are always timely.) I would love to see Peace Pledge taken up by a production company that was passionate about the issue of peace. As The Script Doctor Contest of Contest Winners Judge said, “Definitely a timely and though-provoking story – this is the sort of movie that will have audiences staying in the theater after the lights have come up, arguing the pros and cons of pacifism.” Peace organizations around the world, such as Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace, and even the U.N. with its International Day of Peace, would champion this film. The present-day Peace Pledge Union in the U.K. enthusiastically supports its production.

Logline: A disillusioned First World War veteran, challenged by a reckless Anglican priest, reluctantly fights for peace against fascists in 1930s Britain, losing both friends and family but gaining a second chance in love. Based on the true story of Canon Dick Sheppard and the Peace Pledge Union, the strongest pacifist movement in history.

How has your experience been with screenwriting contests for this project so far?

Great! Peace Pledge has won a number of honors: scored in the top 20% of the Academy Nicoll Screenwriting Competition; Honorable Mention in the Euroscript and New Renaissance Film Festival (London); Official Finalist in the Cannes Screenplay Contest; and won the Wildsound Festival Screenwriting Competition in Toronto. The judge wrote: “This script is fantastic. It is beautifully written and the narrative based on true events is a fascinating and engaging read. Although focusing on a very turbulent time in Britain’s history, the script is in no way targeting a specifically British audience demographic.” The International Screenwriting Association treatment rated the script 4 out of 5 stars, and claimed: “The writer clearly loves the material – there’s so much energy in the writing that it dances on the page… This would be a good script to send to BBC Films, Canal 4, or Pathe, and would probably be a great late-autumn accolade contender.”

If you could stand in a room full of investor partners looking at many projects what would you like them to know about you and this project?

Peace Pledge is about standing up for what you believe in, even against all the odds, and deals with redemption, love and the power of the human spirit, so it should appeal to a broad audience. A more specific target would be those fascinated by events leading up to and including WWII, a large demographic judging by the success of films such as Dunkirk and The Darkest Hour.  Peace Pledge brings a fresh perspective to the period. As an uplifting story, Peace Pledge also becomes more relevant every day with the escalation of military spending and worldwide crises. A staged reading of Peace Pledge was accepted as an event for the U.N. International Day of Peace, Sept. 20, 2018.

Do you have any website links for your writing, credits, background, etc that you would like to share?

I have written several award-winning screenplays, as well as children’s stories, etc. and information about them can be found on my website: https://georgemjohnson.com/