From Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Ron Bass (Best Original Screenplay, Rain Man, 1988) comes Mozart and the Whale, a heartwarming romance inspired by the true story of two people with Asperger's Syndrome (a form of autism), available on DVD December 12 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Josh Hartnett (Pearl Harbor, The Black Dahlia), Radha Mitchell (Silent Hill, Man on Fire) and Gary Cole (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, The West Wing) star in this romantic love story about two people whose emotional challenges threaten to sabotage their budding romance.  Hartnett portrays Donald, a young cab driver afflicted with Asperger's Syndrome, whose obsession with numbers, patterns and birds keep him isolated and unable to form connections with others. Until, that is, he meets Isabella (Mitchell) in a support group. Isabella is as rambunctious and freewheeling as David is nervous and quiet, but a fragile, tumultuous courtship soon blossoms.

Mozart and the Whale is loosely based on the life of Jerry Newport, whose dawning realization of his own illness led him to create a nationwide network of support groups for victims of Asperger's Syndrome. This touching must-own romance will be available for the SRP of $24.96 and includes an audio commentary with Ron Bass.

Donald (Hartnett) is a reclusive cab driver who spends most days deep inside his own head, withdrawn into near-complete isolation due to his obsessions with numbers and patterns. His friends are the numerous birds flying wild throughout his apartment—until he meets Isabella (Mitchell), who loudly uproots the support group for Asperger's Syndrome victims he leads. After a Halloween party in which Isabella is dressed as a ravishing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Donald is costumed as a whale, their lives soon change as each attempts to understand and be understood by the other. As the two struggle to reconcile their evolving worlds with their illness, they poignantly fumble toward a seemingly impossible connection.

Mozart and the Whale was directed by Petter Næss, written by Academy Award® winner Ron Bass, and features Josh Hartnett, Radha Mitchell, Cary Cole, Robert Wisdom and Erica Leerhsen. Mozart and the Whale has a run time of 93 minutes.

"Mozart and the Whale: An Asperger’s Love Story” written by Jerry Newport, Mary Newport and Johnny Dodd will be available in hardcover from Simon & Schuster on January 9, 2007.