- Straight Up Films has acquired the movie rights to Viktor Frankl’s memoir "Man’s Search for Meaning" and is launching development, Variety reports.
SUF co-founders Marisa Polvino and Kate Cohen will produce with Kevin Hall. The company and Hall have acquired the rights from the Frankl estate.
Marlene Siskel will executive produce. Producers are currently out to potential screenwriters to adapt the non-fiction book into a narrative feature film.
"This is a memoir that has actually changed lives, including ours, and has impacted generations in the way we look at the world and how we navigate its sometimes treacherous pathways," said Cohen and Polvino. "It will be our absolute honor and privilege to bring this classic story to the screen. We are thankful to Mr. Frankl’s heirs for entrusting us with his story."
At the time of Frankl’s death in 1997, "Man’s Search for Meaning" had sold more than 10 million copies in 24 languages.
Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose.
SUF produced the feature film "Transcendence," starring Johnny Depp, and the non-fiction feature film "Shot! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock" in association with Vice Films.
Robert A. Wyman of David Wright and Tremaine concluded the acquisition for SUF.
