David Cronenberg's third collaboration with Viggo Mortensen is no longer called The Talking Cure, and will henceforth be known as The Dangerous Method. Maybe the former just wasn't sexy enough for those Universal execs. Who the hell wants to go see a movie about, like, talking?
So the movie will sport a different title from Christopher Hampton's (Dangerous Liaisons) original play, but otherwise the song remains more or less the same: a three-hander drama about Sigmund Freud arguing with his pupil, Carl Jung, and Jung's affair with the emotionally volatile patient Sabina.
The play sold out its 2003 London run starring Ralph Fiennes as Jung, Dominic Rowan as Freud and Jodhi May as Sabina. Cronenberg's version will feature Mortensen as Freud (replacing Christophe Waltz at short notice), Michael Fassbender as Jung, and Keira Knightley.
Producer Jeremy Thomas (who worked with Cronenberg on Crash and Naked Lunch) promised Deadline that the film will feature "lots of spirited sex". Hoorah! Shooting starts next month in Germany.