A Dangerous Method (previously known as The Talking Cure)

[Ciuineas]

Per IMDB -  Optioned Property  23 December 2009 - In Development

Cast:
Christoph Waltz ...
Keira Knightley ...  
Michael Fassbender ...

Director:
David Cronenberg

Writer:
Christopher Hampton (based on the play by & book)

Per Hopscotch Films Facebook:

"More LA buys... Hopscotch will release 'The Talking Cure' directed by Cronenberg, starring Keira Knightly, Michael Fassbender, Christoph Waltz. A beautiful young woman, driven mad by her past. An ambitious doctor on a mission to succeed. Anesteemed mentor with a revolutionary cure. Let the mind games begin…"
December 22 at 2:39pm

Hopscotch Films Website: http://www.hopscotchfilms.com.au/flash.html

Per the Guardian.co.uk

Star joins Inglourious Basterds' Michael Fassbender and Christoph Waltz in David Cronenberg's film of Christopher Hampton's psychoanalytical play

Back on the couch … Keira Knightley, currently making her stage debut with Damian Lewis in The Misanthrope in London, will star in a film of the play, The Talking Cure.

Keira Knightley is to take the lead in David Cronenberg's first film in three years, reports the Playlist blog.

The Talking Cure, based on the Christopher Hampton play of the same name, will star Knightley as Sabina Spielrein, a Russian-Jewish psychiatric patient, who is said to have inspired some of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud's most remarkable discoveries. Christoph Waltz and Michael Fassbender – who both featured in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds – are set to co-star, with Waltz as Freud, and Fassbender as Jung.

Hampton's play focuses on the relationship between Spielrein and Jung, when he was treating her at the Burghölzli mental hospital near Zurich in 1904. Jung used Freudian techniques to try and overcome Spielrein's association of paternal punishment with physical arousal.

The unconfirmed Playlist report was triggered by a Facebook update by Australian distributor Hopscotch Films, suggesting that it had picked up rights to the film.

Reviewing Hampton's play in 2003, the Guardian's Michael Billington wrote: "In part, the play is intended as a tribute to a neglected pioneer. Freud and Jung have entered the history books. But part of Hampton's point is that Spielrein, a patient turned healer, was a highly formative influence. It is she who provokes the rupture between Freud and Jung which enabled the latter to venture deeper into the unconscious." He also rather presciently said, "There is something about its emphasis on narrative over drama that suggests the work's place is on the screen."

[greyeyegoddess]

Yeah, I saw that listed on imdb earlier today, but I don't have pro. 

I was tres excited to see that. 

[Ciuineas]

Production and Distribution information has now been added . . . continues to be a good sign.

Production Companies:
Serendipity Point Films - Toronto

Distributors:
Hopscotch Films - Australia

[Ciuineas]

Recorded Picture Company and Hanway Films

Even though this is from the production companies site itself, it may be considered a possible SPOILER to some.

Film Overview:

On the eve of World War One, the vibrant citiies of Zurich and Vienna are the setting for a dark tale and intellectual discovery.

Fledgling psychiatrist Carl Jung uses Sigmund Freud's talking cure on Sabrina, a young Russian hysteric with whom he falls passionately in love.  Sabrina's emotional life begins to inform Jung's theories and the esteemed Freud also grows intrigued by her.  Relationships deepen between Jung and Freud, and Jung and Sabrina, who is brilliant despite her troubled mind.  Impressed with Jung's results, Freud anoints him as his successor.

Finally, Jung pushes aside his ethics and gives into his feelings for Sabrina, violating the doctor-patient relationship.  Their sexual tryst sets off a chain reaction of consequences.  Freud and Jung begin to grow apart due to their clashing ideologies and Jung's illicit relationship with Sabrina.  Tortured, Jung breaks it off.

Becoming unbalanced, Sabrina attacks Jung in his office before fleeing to Geneva to become Freud's patient.  Jung loses integrity in Freud's eyes by denying the affair, and this subterfuge also damages Sabrina's credibility.  The trio is torn asunder.  After sleeping together one last time, Jung and Sabrina reach an understanding about their relationship.  This time it is Sabrina who decides she needs her freedom.

[~Q~]

Hopscotch Films - Australia

Australia?  Yeeeeaaaaaah!

I have to say - I'm probably more excited about this than I am about any of Michael's other upcoming projects.  The whole psycho-therapy angle.....David Cronenberg.....Christoph Waltz as Sigmund Freud.  Pretty damn close to perfect, in my estimation.

And if they really did want to be perfect, they'd replace Keira Knightley with Eva Green.  Just....yah know....sayin...

[rwctlc1107]

lol Q! I have to admit I made a disappointed groan when I saw Kiera listed.  I have to say this also makes me that much more want to see Chrisopher win an Oscar it would give this movie so much buzz!

[Ciuineas]

I agree . . . I really like the idea of Eva Green.
I think Eva isn't busy at the moment.    Maybe even Marion Cotillard? 

[greyeyegoddess]

Very cool when the money comes in to make a movie.  Kind of makes me want to be an investor:

http://www.screendaily.com/news/finance/europe/german-funds-support-international-co-productions-with-20m/5010479.article

5 February, 2010 | By Martin Blaney

German funds pay out more than $20m in support fpr international co-productions, including David Cronenberg’s The Talking Cure.

David Cronenberg’s (pictured) The Talking Cure, starring Christoph Waltz and Michael Fassbender, is among the international co-productions to receive more than $20.4m (€15m) in backing from German Federal Film Board (FFA), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, and Filmstiftung NRW- at their latest funding sessions.

Istvan Szabo’s The Door, Antti Jokinen’s Nicholas North and Rodrigo Moreno’s A Mysterious World have also received funding.

Berlin-based production house Lago Film has received a total of $1.6m (€1.2m) from the FFA and Filmstiftung NRW for Cronenberg’s adaptation of the Christopher Hampton play of the same name. Waltz and Fassbender will star s Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung alongside Keira Knightley as an enigmatic Russian woman Sabina Spielrein.

Meanwhile, MMC Independent has accessed $2m (€ 1.5m) from Filmstiftung NRW for Finnish director Jokinen’s fantasy adventure Nicholas North, which is set to star Hilary Swank, Juliane Moore and Stellan Skarsgard and will shoot in North Rhine-Westphalia for 19 days.

Roland Emmerich’s Shakespeare drama Anonymous has received $1.2m (€900,000) – the largest sum allocated by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg at this first sitting of 2010.

Other international projects backed by the Berlin fund included for veteran Hungarian film-maker Istvan Szabo’s adaptation of Magda Szabo’s (no relation to the director) international bestseller The Door, which has Helen Mirren is attached, and Argentinian director Rodrigo Moreno’s black comedy A Mysterious World, co-produced with Rohfilm.

Filmstiftung NRW has allocated $681,324 (€500,000) to the German-Polish-French co-production of Malgoska Szumowska’s new feature film Sponsoring, with Juliette Binoche and Anais Demoustier, and it has also given $476,878 (€350,000) to French director Sylvian Estibal’s feature debut, the comedy Das Schwein Von Gaza, which is being structured as a German-French-Belgian co-production by Berlin’s Barry Films.

Several local German productions were also given project support by the three funds. These include Helmut Dietl’s satire on the high life in Berlin, Berlin Mitte, with Michael “Bully” Herbig in the lead; Kai Wessel’s family film Tom Sawyer; and documentary film-maker Andres Veiel’s first foray into fiction film with Wer Wenn Nicht Wir, with August Diehl, Lena Lauzemis and Alexander Fehling playing the young Bernward Vesper, Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader.

Support was also given to award-winning filmmaker Ali Samadi Ahadi’s documentary The Green Wave about last year’s elections in Iran and UFA Cinema’s political thriller Im Jahr Des Hundes by Dennis Gansel.

[Ciuineas]

That's excellent news.

[greyeyegoddess]

There's a rumor going around that Waltz has been replaced with Viggo...

I haven't seen anything online verifying it, only a post on another forum.  

Will be waiting to see if other sites pull the information.  News alerts are stills saying Waltz is in the movie.

[greyeyegoddess]

Ok found something else...according to a red carpet interview-

Christoph Waltz is interviewed. He says he´s is very likely not playing Freud (Sigmund or Lucian?), what a bummer!
He seems to be very nervous, understandable!

I'm bummed if that's true because he would have been perfect!  He has also mentioned that he'll never play a nazi again, so if the rumor is true, I wonder if he doesn't want to be typecasted while playing Freud, not a nazi but of Austrian descent?  Maybe he's trying to get away from anything that is similar to his background.  He is taking Sean Penn's place in a movie where he will play Reese Witherspoon's abusive husband opposite Robert Pattison.  It's hard to imagine him as Reese's husband against Robert.  It doesn't quite fit for me. 

[kamasa]

I just hope this will not delay the film. I love Viggo Mortensen so i'm not so sad about the switch. My only concern is that the age difference between Michael and Viggo will not seem big enough. It is actually almost the same age gap as between Freud and Jung. Jung was in his early thirties and Freud was 50 when they met. Viggo is 52 years old, but he looks so young. I guess they will try to make him look his actual age for this movie.

[greyeyegoddess]

I was thinking that too.  The age difference is going to be a hard sell. 

http://awardsdailyforums.com/showthread.php?t=20985

This was posted in the print form of Baz's column on March 5... (it's not online)

"KEIRA WILL SEE THE SHRINK AFTER ALL...

WHEN Oscar nominee Christophe Waltz dropped out of portraying Sigmund Freud, the grandaddy of psychoanalysts, in a film with Keira Knightley and Michael Fassbender (as Carl Jung), there were concerns the movie might not continue because of possible scheduling problems.

But everyone held their nerve while director David Cronenberg asked his old friend Viggo Mortensen if he would play Freud. Mortensen, who made A History Of Violence and Eastern Promises for Cronenberg, agreed and filming will start once Keira has finished her run in The Misanthrope at the Comedy Theatre.

The film's based on a play by Christopher Hampton about the relationship between the two men, and how they treat a young woman who may have been abused by her father.

So it looks like Keira's bound for the couch after all."

Bad move for Waltz, IMO. He opted to do the Elephants film instead I guess.

Keira's theater performance Tuesday 09 March 2010 to Saturday 13 March 2010 http://www.ambassadortickets.com/1497/667/London/Comedy-Theatre/The-Misanthrope

[Ciuineas]

It was too good to be true . . . I had this awful feeling something like this might happen.   

I was very excited about Michael and Christoph working together but I do really like Viggo and am just as excited at this pairing as well.  Viggo and Michael are outstanding actors and I have no doubt they will pull it off and do an amazing job.

[Ciuineas]

http://thefilmstage.com/2010/03/09/mortenson-in-waltz-out-of-cronenbourgs-sigmund-freud-pic/

Mortenson In, Waltz Out Of Cronenberg’s Sigmund Freud Pic
Posted on 09 March 2010 by Dan Mecca in News

In saying yes to the villain role in Water For Elephants, Oscar winner Christoph Waltz had to turn down the opportunity to play psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud for director David Cronenberg’s adaptation of The Talking Cure, a play by Christopher Hampton (Atonement, The Quiet American). But the bad news stops there: Waltz’s spot has been picked up by Cronenberg regular Viggo Mortenson. The play concerns Freud and his complicated relationship with young pupil Carl Jung. When a father brings his tortured daughter Sabina to Jung for psychological help. The two begin an affair, things unravel and conflict ensues. [Deadline Hollywood] Michael Fassbender is set to play Jung and Keira Knightley’s set to play Sabina.

Shooting starts on May 17th for a little over 2 months.

Hopefully this all goes smoothly and we see this film soon. Cronenberg needs to be making as many movies as possible with casts as good as this. He’s the best we’ve got, and Freud feels right up his alley.  Are you excited to see a film about Sigmund Freud? Directed by Cronenberg no less?