The Hallmark Hall of Fame movie Front of the Class, airing this Sunday, Dec. 7, at 8 p.m. (CST) on CBS, will feature the screenplay of Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and Murray State University alumnus Tom Rickman.

The movie is based on the true story of Brad Cohen, motivational speaker and award-winning teacher and author living with Tourette Syndrome. Inspired by Cohen’s book, Front of the Class: How Tourette Syndrom Made Me the Teacher I Never Had, the movie tells the inspirational true story of Cohen’s life and how he defies the odds to become a teacher.

Despite an impressive college record, Cohen was turned down by 24 Atlanta area schools before he was offered a job teaching second grade at Mountain View Elementary School in Cobb County, Ga. He was later named the Outstanding First Year Teacher for the state of Georgia.

"Cohen had a difficult childhood because not many people understood his condition," says Rickman. "Many of the adults in his life didn't believe he couldn't control his outbursts and tics."

Rickman said he became attached to the project about a year ago, but the Writers Guild of America strike forced him to delay getting started on the script for about three months.

Rickman, pictured above left, is a Emmy-nominated screenwriter of the television movies Tuesday’s With Morrie (1999) and Truman (1995) and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter for the 1980 film Coal Miner’s Daughter. He also wrote the screenplay for the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation The Hands of Cormac Joyce. A faculty member of the American Film Institute (AFI) Conservatory in Los Angeles, he serves as the disipline head for all screenwriting fellows and faculty.

A native of Sharpe , Ky. , he received his bachelor’s degree in English from MSU in 1965 and his master’s degree in English from the University of Illinois , Champaign-Urbana. He is a 1981 MSU Distinguished Alumnus Recipient.

Rickman’s writing studio is located at his home in Encino , Calif. A charter trustee of Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute in Utah, Rickman has continued to mentor hopeful writers/directors at Sundance and internationally in Cuba , Brazil , France , Italy , Norway , Ireland and other countries. He has taught a master’s course in writing at the University of Southern California and also founded his own screenwriting workshop at the Squaw Valley Writer’s Conference near Lake Tahoe Calif.