By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

SPC Seduced By Cronenberg’s DANGEROUS METHOD

NEW YORK (June 16, 2011) – Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired U.S. rights to David Cronenberg’s A DANGEROUS METHOD from UK-based Hanway Films. The film, produced by Jeremy Thomas (THE LAST EMPEROR, SEXY BEAST), stars Viggo Mortenson, Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, and Vincent Cassel.  The film is currently in postproduction.

Cronenberg once again gathered a prestigious crew to work on A DANGEROUS METHOD, director of photography Peter Suschitsky (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, EASTERN PROMISES), composer Howard Shore (THE LORD OF THE RINGS Trilogy, AVATAR),  editor Ronald Sanders (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, EASTERN PROMISES, CORALINE), costume designer Denise Cronenberg (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, EASTERN PROMISES, THE INCREDIBLE HULK) and production designer James McAteer (GOOD WILL HUNTING, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN). The screenplay was adapted by Christopher Hampton (ATONEMENT, THE QUIET AMERICAN) from his own play.

Seduced by the challenge of an impossible case, the driven Dr. Jung (Michael Fassbender) takes the unbalanced yet beautiful Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) as his patient in A DANGEROUS METHOD. Jung’s weapon is the method of his master, the renowned Sigmund Freud. Both men fall under Sabina’s spell.

“David Cronenberg and Jeremy Thomas have made a film that not only has an impeccable cast and crew working at the height of their talents but tells one of the most fascinating love triangles of the twentieth century.  The American public will enthusiastically embrace this picture.  We are delighted to be in business again with Jeremy and David,” states Sony Pictures Classics.

Producer Jeremy Thomas adds, “I’m very excited to be working again with my friends at Sony Pictures Classics on David’s wonderful film.”

Sony Pictures Classics released David Cronenberg’s SPIDER as well as several films produced by Jeremy Thomas (Takeshi Kitano’s BROTHER, Wim Wender’s DON’T COME KNOCKING, and David Mackenzie’s YOUNG ADAM).

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon