Niall Johnson

Niall’s career as a Writer and Director spans 30 years. After a decade making no-to-low budget movies he came to the industry’s notice in 2003 with his spec supernatural thriller script WHITE NOISE, produced by Gold Circle Films and Universal Pictures, starring Michael Keaton, and directed by Geoffrey Sax. It opened in January 2005 at #1 in the UK and #2 in the US.

That same year saw the release of Niall’s black comedy KEEPING MUM, starring Rowan Atkinson, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Patrick Swayze. Niall directed from a script he wrote with Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist Richard Russo (Nobody’s Fool, Empire Falls). “A sophisticated gem” (Hollywood Reporter). “One of the best British film comedies in recent years” (The Times). “Wickedly wonderful entertainment” (The Sun),

Niall adapted 2015’s true story weepie family drama MUM’S LIST from St John Greene’s best-selling memoir. It stars Rafe Spall and Emilia Fox. After its theatrical run it reached #1 on the Amazon DVD/Blu-Ray bestsellers chart on release day. Official Selection at the Dinard Festival of British Film, at Shanghai, at the Heartland Film Festival, USA (where it won the Audience Award), and at the Festival of British Film at D’Ajaccio in Corsica (where it won the main Prize Coup de Couer). “Powerful and beautifully acted” (Mail on Sunday).  “Beautifully well-crafted, staggeringly moving.” (Flickreel) “A triumph” (HeyUGuys).

Niall’s 2017 Western-styled New Zealand historical adventure drama THE STOLEN was co-written with its producer Emily Corcoran, and stars Alice Eve, Jack Davenport, Graham McTavish and Richard O’Brien. It was released in the US by Universal, and enjoyed a successful 16-week theatrical run in New Zealand. “A heart-wrenching, thrilling adventure” (Blazing Minds), “Hard-hitting, engaging, refreshing (Time Out London), “Pick of the week” (Hello Magazine).

In 2018, Niall was a Writer on animated drama-documentary hybrid ANOTHER DAY OF LIFE, based on the memoir by Ryszard Kapuscinski, set in the Angolan civil war of the mid-1970s. Winner of the Best Animated Film at both the 2018 European Film Awards and the 2019 Goya Awards, it received its World Premiere at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival (Official Selection Out of Competition) and won Audience Awards at a wide range of festivals including San Sebastian. “A visually striking piece of rare immediacy and power” (Hollywood Reporter). “One of Europe’s most awaited animation films” (Variety). “Exhilarating…breath-taking” (Cineuropa).

Most recently, Niall co-wrote—with Gary Grant—the hit horror thriller DARKGAME (starring Ed Westwick, produced by Tom George, and directed by Howard J Ford) which reached #2 in the Netflix UK charts on its release in December 2024, and remained in the top 10 for a few months.

Across the years, Niall has written for a range of producers and companies in LA, London and Europe—projects ranging from a new adaptation of TREASURE ISLAND…haunted dollhouse supernatural thriller THE DOLLHOUSE MURDERS…true story CHINA BLACK CHAMBER, about an American code breaker in China in WW2…THE STAND-IN, a psychological thriller based on the novel by best-selling author Deborah Moggach…and CALLAS, a biopic of Maria Callas…among many others.

Niall latest screenplays include: young-adult thriller ASSASSIN ACADEMY and Rom-Com TEMPUS FUGIT for Tom George, Happy Hour Productions; supernatural drama THE STROMA SESSIONS for Moo Studios, movie-business comedy-drama  CATCH A FALLING STAR for Paul Iacovou and Green Olive Films, and KIKA-MAMA-YAYA a family drama spanning the 1930s-80s, for producer Chantelle de Carvallho.

Niall began writing and directing movies in the UK at the end of the 1980s, after graduating from Bristol University. He started with a run of low budget features, including vampire romance DAWN (1991), and wife-swapping comedy drama THE BIG SWAP (theatrically released in the UK in 1998 by Film Four)—which won Critic’s Choice at the 1999 Rotterdam Film Festival. “Unmissable” (Daily Star). “One of the year’s gems” (Cosmopolitan). “A tour de force” (Seattle Weekly). Niall followed that with traditional haunted house tale THE GHOST OF GREVILLE LODGE (1999, starring Prunella Scales and George Cole), which has become a Halloween/Christmas season favourite on TV channels around the world: “a golden film in an era that has lost its shine” (IMDB).

Born and raised in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham, England, Niall’s passion for movies is a result of a childhood spent producing epic remakes of the likes of PLANET OF THE APES, STAR TREK, DOCTOR WHO and BATMAN with his older brother and a silent Kodak 8mm film camera—the most notable recurring feature of these being his mother’s laundry hanging on the washing line in the back-yard!