A Dangerous Method starts filming in May

David Cronenberg's upcoming film based on Christopher Hampton's play, The Talking Cure, has been renamed "A Dangerous Method." According to Production Weekly, filming starts next month at locations in Berlin, Vienna and Zurich. No release date has been set, but the film is expected to be released in 2011.

The story explores the relationship between psychiatry revolutionaries Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and his student, Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender). Amazon.com's synopsis of The Talking Cure:

Overshadowed by portents of the coming wars, Zurich and Vienna are the setting for this tale of emotional vicissitude and intellectual debate. The Talking Cure is an intimate picture of the birth of psychoanalysis and of two intense and inextricably interwoven relationships. Carl Jung uses Sigmund Freud's "talking cure" on Sabina, a young Russian hysteric with whom he will fall in love. Impressed with Jung's results, Freud anoints him his successor, but when Jung develops his own theories they part ways. Sensitive and intelligent, The Talking Cure illuminates the origins of one of the twentieth century's most influential schools of thought.

Keira Knightley will play Jung's patient Sabina Spielrein. Vincent Cassel ("Kirill" in Eastern Promises) also has a not-yet specified part. Christoph Waltz was originally signed to play Freud, but backed out in March to accept a leading role in Water for Elephants. We're delighted that Cronenberg was able to replace Waltz with Viggo Mortensen.

More information and opinions at The Playlist, Gordon and the Whale, /Film and IMDb.

Viggo Mortensen Knighted by Danish Queen

From Frederik at TheOneRing.net, we learned that as part of Queen Margrethe II's 70th birthday celebration, Viggo Mortensen was one of several notables who were named Ridder af Dannebrog, which translates to "Knight of the Danish banner." (Viggo's father was Danish.)

Thanks to Viggo-Works for pointing us to this article about the occasion (in Danish), and to the photograph of the medal.

Viggo Mortensen praises Dennis Hopper

Elizabeth Snead shot this video of Viggo Mortensen honoring Dennis Hopper at his Hollywood Star on the Walk of Fame ceremony on Friday, March 26. it was a touching moment since Hopper is terminally ill with prostate cancer.

Viggo Mortensen narrates Path of the Condor

The Path of the Condor is a documentary film directed by Christian Holler, in which a paraglider pilot and an ornithologist study the life and flight characteristics of the world’s largest flying bird, the condor. First released in 2008, it has been remade with narration by Viggo Mortensen. The U.S. premiere was Sunday, March 28, at the Environmental Film Festival in Maryland.

A DVD of the film has been available for some time, with other narrators. It is being re-released with Viggo Mortensen's narration, but be aware that the copies currently available were made prior to this remake.

For more information:

• De cuervos y cóndores - December 2009 interview with Viggo Mortensen regarding the narration includes a photo of Viggo with maté in hand (in Spanish)
• Official Path of the Condor website - all flash, pretty but slow
• The Path of the Condor - REDUX - Vimeo clip showing scenes from the film (no Viggo)
• Path of the Condor Facebook page - see photo album from Viggo's narration
• Film review - includes video clip with original narrator

Reviews coming in for The Road at Toronto

Marshall Fine writes that The Road has "drawn mixed reviews coming out of the Venice Film Festival."

The chief knock on it? That it's downbeat and depressing.

How shocking — given that it's based on Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a father and son trying to survive a world-killing nuclear winter. I guess those critics were looking for a more cheerful post-apocalyptic tale.

In fact, Hillcoat's film is both faithful to and expands upon McCarthy’s novel. But as the book did, it always returns to the father, played with fierce tenderness by Viggo Mortensen, and his efforts to keep his boy alive and get him to some safe place — if such a place still exists. It's a performance that alternately smolders and flares, as Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee (as the boy) trudge through a gray, desolate landscape, trying to maintain their humanity and stay alive, while dodging others who have succumbed to the Darwinian imperative.

It's an important and a genuinely moving film, one that deserves a wide audience. Here's hoping that it finds one in the crowded award season of November, when it will be released.

I must confess that I am dreading the film as much as I look forward to it. I'm depressed enough already! McCarthy's The Road has been sitting on my shelf for over a year, waiting for me to build up the courage to read it. But with Viggo in the film, I'll be in the theater as soon as it reaches my hometown, and I have no doubt I'll be glad I saw it.

You can read the rest of Marshall Fine's Toronto reviews at his site, Hollywood & Fine.

Viggo Mortensen's hairdo troubles some folks

The Huffington Post has posted a poll asking readers their opinion of Viggo's latest look.

Viggo Mortensen is at the Venice Film Festival to premiere his long-awaited cinematic version of Cormac McCarthy's The Road Thursday night.

Thursday at a photo call Viggo, 50, arrived by boat in a "Make Art, Not War" t-short and a middle-parted, shoulder-length bob.

Your choices in the poll are "Love it!"; "Love HIM, but not the hair"; or "Lose It". Unfortunately there is no option for "Love Viggo and whatever he wants to do with his hair is fine with me." Thankfully, most of the comments express this latter opinion! Vote and/or comment here.

Viggo's Nikolai named top 10 screen mobster

Michael Ordoña of the San Francisco Chronicle named his picks for The top 10 best screen mobsters yesterday. Making his appearance as #6 on the list was Nikolai Luzhin, Viggo Mortensen's character in Eastern Promises:

If you had never seen Mortensen before this film, you'd think he was that guy, that the filmmakers had just pulled some Russian dude out of a high-end London nightclub. Equal parts preening macho narcissist and cold-blooded hatchet man, he tops even Borat for best naked fight.

Our only question: why wasn't he ranked #1? :)

The Road official trailer is out

The official theatrical trailer for The Road was released yesterday. The film, which stars Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall, Charlize Theron, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Garret Dillahunt, is now scheduled for an October 16th, 2009, release.

Click on the "HD" button to watch a nice big shiny version.

Based on Cormac McCarthy's best-selling and Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Road is the epic post-apocalyptic tale of a journey taken by a father and his young son across a barren landscape that was blasted by an unnamed cataclysm that destroyed civilization and most life on earth. I've been worried that it would be just quietly depressing but it looks as though there is a lot of action adventure to balance the quiet. I'm expecting this to be another incredible Viggo performance. Is it October yet?