“Boys Don’t Cry” director to helm “Man’s Search for Meaning”

PanARMENIAN.Net - “Boys Don’t Cry” director Kimberly Peirce has come on board Straight Up Films’ movie version of Viktor Frankl’s memoir “Man’s Search for Meaning”, Variety said.

Peirce, who also produced and co-wrote “Boys Don’t Cry” is interviewing screenwriters for the project. 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 argued that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose.

“When I first read Viktor Frankl’s ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ decades ago, I was touched by Frankl’s remarkable ability to make meaning and thus find a will to live from the immense and brutal losses, he and those around him endured,” said Peirce. “I was further moved by his ability to transform these experiences into a profound philosophy for living and appreciating life. Over the years I have reread this great work and it has inspired me in unique and powerful ways. It is a tremendous honor to adapt and direct Viktor Frankl’s amazing life and work into a movie.”

Marisa Polvino and Kate Cohen, founders and heads of Straight Up Films, are producing with Kevin Hall. The company is also financing.

“Kimberly’s insight and connection to the heart of the material coupled with her proven ability to find the emotional power and significance of her characters wildly impressed us. ‘Man’s Search’ requires a unique voice and visionary mind, and Kimberly is exactly that,” said Polvino and Cohen.

Straight Up Films secured the exclusive rights to make the film in June. which is slated for production in 2017. 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.

Peirce also directed “Stop-Loss” and “Carrie.”