UPI has acquired the film, starring  Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender and Vincent Cassel, to distribute in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and South Africa. HanWay handles sales.

Universal Pictures International (UPI) has picked up multiple territories on David Cronenberg’s Freud/Jung film, A Dangerous Method (formerly known as The Talking Cure.)

Universal has acquired the film, starring Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender and Vincent Cassel, to distribute in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and South Africa. The deal was announced this week by producer Jeremy Thomas and by UPI’s President of International Production and Acquisitions, Christian Grass.

HanWay Films will handle international sales and has pre-sold the film to (among others), Mars in France, E1 Films in Canada, Transmission in Australia, Lusomundo in Portugal, Cineart in Benelux, Odeon in Greece and Romania, Monolith in Poland, Discovery in Ex Yugoslavia, Maywin in Russia, and Swen in Latin America.

A Dangerous Method is produced by Jeremy Thomas’s Recorded Picture Company (RPC) with co-producers Marco Mehlitz of Lago Film in Germany and Marty Katz of ProsperoFilm in Canada.

The film is set in Zurich and Vienna on the eve of the First World War. It is a dark tale of sexual and intellectual discovery drawn from true-life events based on the turbulent relationships between fledgling psychiatrist Carl Jung (Fassbender), his mentor Sigmund Freud (Mortensen), and Sabina Spielrein (Knightley). Into the mix comes Otto Gross (Cassel), a debauched patient who is determined to push the boundaries. The script is by Christopher Hampton. Production starts in Germany this May.

A Dangerous Method reunites Thomas and Cronenberg after their collaborations on Naked Lunch in 1991 and Crash in 1996.

“I have long been drawn to the story of erotic daring between these two good doctors and the woman who both divided and defined them. History can only hint at the psychological and physical terrain they opened up, but a film can explore it,” Cronenberg commented.

“Bringing the ideas of Jung and Freud together through their relationship with Sabina Spielrein, as seen by David Cronenberg, will make for an unusual and alluring film for anyone interested in modern thought. I can’t wait to see that movie, “ Thomas added.

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