Private Project

18% - Based on a True Story

A self-absorbed newlywed has planned out the perfect life, but when his wife gives birth to a premature child with an 18% chance of survival, he must confront his troubled past before it rips their marriage apart.

  • Geno Marx
    Writer
    Capsized
  • Project Type:
    Screenplay
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Number of Pages:
    91
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Action on Film
    Monrovia, CA
    September 24, 2015
    (Winner-Runner Up) Best Dramatic Scene, (Nominated) Best New Writer
  • Reel Author's 2015

    December 28, 2015
    Genre: Drama (Winner)
  • Sceencraft Feature Competition

    October 12, 2022
    Quarterfinalist
Writer Biography - Geno Marx

Geno is a Writer and Director from Chicago. As a bi-racial kid of European and Indian/Sri Lankan descent, he struggled in his youth to find his own tribe. With a revolving door of abusive stepfathers and a career driven mother who traveled abroad, Geno and his siblings were latchkey kids. Books, movies, music, and writing became his escape.

At twelve, he won the Young Author’s Contest, and the experience planted the seed of Hollywood dreams. After moving to Los Angeles and working as an editor and videographer, his world was turned upside down with the birth of his two extremely premature sons.

Geno writes stories that speak to the pain of dysfunctional families, broken relationships, and overcoming adversity. Today he lives in Phoenix with his wife, children, two cats, and some unwelcome scorpions.

He recently completed the groundbreaking comedy TV pilot called DON'T LOOK NOW featuring low vision actors.

Add Writer Biography
Writer Statement

“Your son weighs only 1 lb. 4 oz.” Just typing that sentence sends a chill down my spine. It transports me back to an emotional battlefield as if I were a war veteran suffering from PTSD.

18% began as a therapeutic exercise. For years I had been suffering from insomnia and anxiety from having gone through not one, but two traumatic child births. My second son weighed only 3 lbs at birth and my wife almost died after the surgery. I would often wake up in cold sweats and run into my children’s room to see if they were both still breathing.

Over the years I would lurk in online support forums and read about stories similar to mine. I began to obsessively research outcomes and statistics on children born under these circumstances and discovered that most of the survival data is based on the far more successful female births. It would appear that boys born at such severe prematurity and birth weight are in an uphill battle because they develop slower in the womb than girls. My wife and I even watched Oprah do an episode with mothers and their premature children. Almost all of them were females and only one of the preemies had a lower weight and gestational age than our son.

While writing 18%, I realized that Marc’s journey in the film needed to be about more than just the event itself. Marc’s precarious relationship with his father-in-law reveals his pain of never having a good male role model in his own life. It is a struggle many young men are faced with every day in our society. How are we supposed to guide the next generation of children if we have no experience of what fathers are supposed to be?

By sharing our story, I envision audiences will gain insight into the challenges of a traumatic childbirth and the emotional toll it takes on the families. More importantly, I believe audiences will connect with Marc’s coming of age journey into fatherhood and marriage.