Mythology Entertainment nabs film rights to “Nazi And Psychiatrist” book

PanARMENIAN.Net - Mythology Entertainment partners Bradley Fischer, James Vanderbilt and Laeta Kalogridis have secured rights to turn the non-fiction book The Nazi And The Psychiatrist into a feature film and a play, Deadline said.

The book, written by Jack El-Hai and slated for publication by PublicAffairs Books, explores the complex relationship between American psychiatrist Dr. Douglas M. Kelley and Nazi war criminal and Hitler’s right-hand man Hermann Goering. The book is the first to access Kelley’s personal and professional papers from the Nuremberg Trial years, which the shrink’s family had hidden away for years. Mythology’s Fischer, Vanderbilt and Kalogridis will produce both the film and stage versions.

Surrounded by the postwar ruins of the Third Reich, 22 top Nazi prisoners awaited trial at the 1945-46 International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany. Kelley, who studied the essence of evil and the anatomy of the Nazi personality, was among the few people allowed regular contact with the prisoners. There, he developed a complex and close relationship with Goering, a clever and manipulative prisoner who was the highest-ranking Nazi in Allied hands. As the psychiatrist tested and interviewed Goering and the other prisoners, he reached conclusions that shook his assumptions and sowed the seeds of his own downfall.

This marks the second Mythology deal with author El-Hai. The company is currently producing The Lobotomist for HBO with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way. That’s based on El-Hai’s non-fiction book The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius And His Tragic Quest To Rid The World Of Mental Illness. Mythology is in production on White House Down, with Roland Emmerich directing and Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx starring.