Samuel Goldwyn Films and Shudder have teamed up to acquire Adam Egypt Mortimer’s dark thriller Daniel Isn’t Real starring Patrick Schwarzenegger (“The Long Road Home”, “Midnight Sun”) and Miles Robbins (“Blockers,” David Gordon Green’s “Halloween”) alongside Sasha Lane (“American Honey,” “Hearts Beat Loud”), Hannah Marks (“Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency”) and Mary Stuart Masterson (“Blindspot”). The film will come to theaters and VOD late 2019. 

Troubled college freshman Luke (Robbins) suffers a violent family trauma and resurrects his childhood imaginary friend Daniel (Schwarzenegger) to help him cope. Charismatic and full of manic energy, Daniel helps Luke to achieve his dreams, before pushing him to the very edge of sanity and into a desperate struggle for control of his mind — and his soul. 

Daniel Isn’t Real was directed by Adam Egypt Mortimer (Some Kind of Hate) and co-written with Brian DeLeeuw, based on DeLeeuw’s acclaimed book “In This Way I Was Saved”.

“The film is striking in so many ways from visuals and performances to the incredible execution of psychological horror. We immediately recognized that Adam had crafted something special here and are excited to partner with Shudder and bring it to audiences everywhere,” says Miles Fineburg of Samuel Goldwyn Films. 

“In Goldwyn and Shudder we’ve found two ideal partners who perfectly represent the unique hybrid of qualities that our movie has to offer: at once a provocative identity thriller drama for a discerning arthouse audience and gonzo face-melter for devotees of extreme cinemas,” says director Adam Egypt Mortimer.