Sony Pictures Classics Nabs NYFF Gala Spots for ‘Skin’ and ‘Dangerous Method’

The Film Society of Lincoln Center is looking to leverage its brand-spanking-new facilities as much as possible for the upcoming 49th annual New York Film Festival, which takes place from September 30-October 16. Already promising an expansion of screenings and panels, the FSLC announced today that it is adding two Gala nights to accompany screenings of two of the fall’s most anticipated films, David Cronenberg’s ‘A Dangerous Method,’ and Pedro Almodovar’s ‘The Skin I Live In.’

This will bizarrely be the very first time that a Cronenberg film has been played at the NYFF. Screening on October 5, ‘A Dangerous Method’ is based on a stage play by Christopher Hampton, and explores the relationship between Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen’s third straight collaboration with Cronenberg) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) as they each struggle to treat the sexy, screwed-up Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightly, getting a lot of early awards buzz). Brilliant minds clash, libidos roar, and from the dust of the ordeal springs the advancements of Jungian psychology.

Pedro Almodovar returns to the NYFF on October 12 with ‘The Skin I Live In.’ A supposed change of pace from his novelistic melodramas, this horror-thriller stars Antonio Banderas as a plastic surgeon with radical ideas and flexible ethics who is in need of two things: a young woman to experiment on, and revenge.

‘A Dangerous Method’ is set for theatrical release by Sony Pictures Classics on November 23. Also distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, ‘The Skin That I Inhabit’ will be released on October 14, two days after its NYFF screening. Gala events will also be held for the NYFF’s Opening Night film, Roman Polanksi’s ‘Carnage’ (an intimate four-hander starring Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly, and Christoph Waltz), the Centerpiece film, the Weinstein Co.’s ‘My Week with Marilyn’ (starring Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe and Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier), and the Closing Night film, which is certainly being speculated on by vet film bloggers.

Best guesses for the Closing Night selection include the upcoming biopic ‘J. Edgar’ (starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the infamous head of the FBI) from NYFF favorite Clint Eastwood, though some reports have suggested that Eastwood is still caught up in post-production and will bypass all fest showings. Other possibilities include another Weinstein Co. offering, the Margaret Thatcher biopic ‘The Iron Lady,’ starring Meryl Streep, but its the buzz-heavy Cold War spy thriller ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,’ starring Gary Oldman that is currently being mentioned. Tomorrow’s TIFF announcements should clarify the matter.