‘Eyes Wide Shut’ is getting a new screen adaptation
Traumnovelle, the 1926 Arthur Schnitzler novella on which Stanley Kubrick based his 1999 psychological drama Eyes Wide Shut, has been adapted into a new film and is headed for global distribution.
Directed by German filmmaker Florian Frerichs, it stars Nikolai Kinski, the son of frequent Werner Herzog actor Klaus Kinski, and Laurine Price as an affluent married couple whose relationship is tested when he discovers an erotic underground society.
Despite being a German production, the film is English-language and has been acquired for international distribution by New Zealand firm Black Mandala.
In a statement to Variety, Frerichs said, “Traumnovelle is a genre mix of comedy, eroticism, horror and thriller. The sexually charged neo-noir thriller captivates the audience with a world full of dreams and fantasies, but also encourages critical reflection on moral abysses.”
Kubrick’s version of the story starred Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as the wealthy married couple whose relationship is in jeopardy. The actors were married at the time, which caused a media frenzy to surround the production. Although the press treated the film as an explicit erotic thriller in the lead-up to its release, it is much more in keeping with the psychological thriller genre, a discrepancy which may have been partly to blame for its largely negative reception. It was a box office success, earning over $162million off a budget of $65million, but reviews were mixed to poor.
More than two decades after its release, Eyes Wide Shut has been reevaluated by Kubrick enthusiasts and is regularly considered to be one of his most underrated films.
Frerichs’s production was made with a budget of €1million and has been screened in 60 theatres across Germany since January 16th. Black Mandala is currently preparing it for the European Film Market, an annual networking event for distributors, buyers, and producers.
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