Amidst Cancer Treatment, Simon Marshall Teaming With Lesley Paterson To Adapt Viktor Frankl’s ‘Man’s Search For Meaning’ For Producer Kate Cohen

Matt Grobar
·4 min read
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EXCLUSIVE: Producer Kate Cohen (Jane Got a Gun) has tapped Oscar nominee Lesley Paterson (All Quiet on the Western Front) and Simon Marshall to script a feature adaptation of Viktor Frankl’s classic treatise, Man’s Search for Meaning. For Paterson’s husband and writing partner, Marshall, the project has taken on particular resonance of late, having just been diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer.

Translated into 50 languages, with over 16 million copies sold, Frankl’s riveting account of his time in the Nazi concentration camps, and his exploration of the human will to find meaning in spite of unspeakable adversity, has offered solace and guidance to generations of readers since it was first published in 1946. At the heart of his work is the conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but rather the pursuit of meaning.

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Producer Kate Cohen
Producer Kate Cohen

Set to produce under her Straight Up Impact banner — alongside Frankl’s grandson, Alexander Vesely Frankl (Viktor and I), who is a filmmaker in his own right — Cohen secured the rights to Man’s Search for Meaning many years ago and has been looking for the perfect writers for the project ever since. When she first connected with Paterson and Marshall, she knew they were the ones.

“There was something magical about them and I knew they understood the book with every fiber of their being,” Cohen said. “We had several meetings with Alexander Vesely Frankl and began developing the story, which was unusual for me to do before officially hiring a writer.”

After pitching the duo’s take to Cohen’s producer partner Tony Robbins, they were locked in. Marshall’s cancer diagnosis came the same day, and while he and Paterson were asked if they needed to step back from the project, they instead doubled down, knowing this was a story they had to tell, while pursuing treatment for Marshall. Previously a professor in psychology, Marshall taught the book for many years, and Paterson has lived her life following Frankl’s mantra that the life you choose to focus on is the life you experience.

“Developing our vision for this adaptation with Kate Cohen and Alexander Vesely Frankl has been incredible,” Paterson said, “and we are excited to bring this book to life so that Frankl’s message can further impact the rest of the world the way it has impacted the filmmaking team.”

Deadline understands that the project is fully financed and will go into production late next year. Set to be made in tandem, the filmmakers say, is a documentary chronicling Marshall and Paterson’s work on the pic while facing down one of the most harrowing moments of their lives. “About a month after we closed our deal, Lesley mentioned doing a doc about Simon’s treatment, the cancer culture, and writing Man’s Search For Meaning,” explained Cohen. “I thought it was a brilliant idea and then fate intervened again when Valerie Van Galder, a friend of Lesley and Simon’s as well as Ondi Timoner (two time Grand Jury Prize winner at Sundance) introduced Lesley and Ondi.”

Timoner (Last Flight Home, The New Americans) will direct and produce the doc, titled All That We Are, with Cohen serving as executive producer. Cohen, Robbins and Vesely Frankl will be joined as producers on the narrative feature adaptation of Man’s Search for Meaning by Marisa Polvino, with Pam Roy and Mike Walsh on board as EPs.

In a statement on the documentary project, Timoner told us: “I feel honored to bear witness to a love story which demonstrates the full depth of our human potential. Lesley and Simon will show us what true courage and determination  look like, as they run the race of their lives, against all odds in the documentary I am currently directing. “All That We Are” will question the cancer industry, as its subjects stop at nothing to find a cure and confront barriers to their survival many of us will face.”

A Scottish triathlete, author, screenwriter and producer, Paterson is best known for co-writing and producing Edward Berger’s adaptation of the classic WWI novel All Quiet on the Western Front, which brought Netflix four Oscars (including Best International Feature) from nine nominations at the 95th Academy Awards. Paterson won a Best Adapted Screenplay BAFTA for her work, sharing it with co-writers Ian Stokell and Berger.

Straight Up Films’ founder Cohen’s producing credits include Transcendence starring Johnny Depp, Gavin O’Connor’s Western Jane Got a Gun starring Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor, and Manos Sucias, a project with Spike Lee as executive producer, to name a few. Also on her upcoming slate is the film Joseph Merrick, based on the life of “The Elephant Man,” on which she’s partnered with with Oscar nominee Mike Medavoy.

Paterson & Marshall are represented by CAA, Principal Entertainment and Felker Toczek Suddleson. Timoner is repped by IAG, Dialed-in Entertainment and Nelson Davis.

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