Erik Waldman

A teenage hockey goalie with severe anxiety and traits associated with Asperger's struggles to survive family pressure, bullying and his own self destructive inner voice while slowly discovering that his ability to understand people may actually become his greatest strength. What Daniel doesn't realize is that he needs to look at his own life and correct certain things about himself if he wants to become the person he wants to be, if his mind will let him.

This project is aimed at anyone suffering from anxiety disorders and living with Autism. A lot of people suffer from anxiety disorders and struggle to get treated. Autistic people are sometimes surrounded by people who don't fully understand. This film is for people that are struggling and spreading awareness of what anxiety and autism can be like, because this film will not hold back in putting the audience in Daniel's shoes. This project is like Adam (Aspergers awareness) and Jojo Rabbit (Inspiration for the Clark character) meets Good Will Hunting (Character journey to his best potential after a lifetime of struggle). Another comparable project is Perks of Being a Wallflower, because Daniel and Charlie are both students discovering their identity within their high school walls.

My cowriter and I's real life is the inspiration for this project. This project is slightly autobiographical, and the fantasy elements will express what we didn't notice about our struggles until we wrote this script. We both struggled in high school due to our Aspergers and anxiety disorders, and we weren't treated until after high school. My co-writer and I discussed our high school experiences and figured out a way to make it more cinematic by creating a manifestation of our struggles; Clark. I'm not aware if any film has ever tried anything like this: a raw representation of Aspergers and anxiety. Why today? Because anxiety and autism have become more of a conversation in the present day, even in a negative light from the U.S. government. This has not stopped filmmakers and screenwriters from showing their perspectives. I'm seeing more TV shows like Atypical (Keir Gilchrist's character Sam), and movies like Fantastic Beasts (Eddie Redmayne's character Newt) which center on characters with anxiety and Autism. I plan to continue the awareness these projects have started in the last decade. We're not done with this conversation and we don't on stopping the awareness anytime soon.

My cowriter and I are open to any way to get this script out there to get this project on the big screen. Any path to get this script to the screen would work for us. Our goal is that anyone willing to take on our project either can relate to this with their own personal struggles or know someone who has these disorders (and visualize this project for them). We hope that whoever buys or options this script can bring the right people to bring this project to the screen to spread more awareness of anxiety disorders, Aspergers and Autism. Daniel's goal is to help others, and so is ours. However, we want people to check in on themselves as much as they help others.