Screenplay Honored with FINALIST AWARDS at 20+ Festivals in 2023-24
PROSPECTS:
"Biopics... have been both critical and financial successes, proving that uplifting stories can resonate with viewers and be among the highest grossing films of all time." -ScreenRant
A huge international following exists...
Viktor is the best-selling author of Man's Search For Meaning - over 16 million copies sold in 52 languages. He is also the creator of Logotherapy, used today by countless mental health professionals the world over. Teacher. Lecturer. Holocaust survivor. A man for all seasons. Viktor's work, and the story of his life and love for Tilly, remain as important and cherished as ever.
"Viktor Frankl remains a revered and respected philosopher... (this screenplay) does him well, it's a penetrating, hard-hitting script that doesn't shy away from the difficult themes explored in such a life." ---THE BLACK LIST
The making of...
VIKTOR 119104 - A Man's Search fo Meaning
Check out Part 1 of our "making of" story about the life of Dr. Viktor Frankl - bestselling author, groundbreaking psychiatrist and philosopher whose inspirational message has never been more timely than today.
LOGLINE:
Vienna's most eligible Jewish bachelor, Dr. Viktor Frankl, falls for a remarkable, effervescent young nurse who flirtatiously promises to break his heart when he is most vulnerable as revenge for his mistreatment of her best friend.
DRAMA - BIO-PIC - A holocaust survival story based on historical events.
"There is true brilliance in Viktor and Tilly's love story. Their chemistry is palpable even on the page, and their dialogue is masterfully crafted. This story will change lives..." -Blue Cat.
"A powerful, unrelenting, and insightful story of humanity, inhumanity, and man's search for meaning. The script stands out not only for the affecting story it tells, which is as timeless in its portrayal of the human condition as it is historical, but for the reaction of the characters and the philosophy they bring to the table. Viktor sees the worst humanity has to offer and the worst it can endure, but he remains wise enough to acknowledge the humanity of all, including the oppressors, and look for a way to process it. Viktor says, "Hate is the fiction of a diseased mind", which is echoed later when Rabbi Jonas affirms that hate is but the absence of love. Viktor certainly does see love. His scenes with Tilly are sweet and at times breathtakingly romantic..." ---THE BLACK LIST
"Heartbreak, joy, and even occasional comedy fill this fantastic script. The writer delivers skillfully!" --Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards
(Photo: akg-images / brandstaetter images)
VIKTOR 119104
A Man's Search for Meaning
(aka TILLY'S PROMISE)
A BLOCKBUSTER Bio-Pic/Love Story
LOGLINE:
Vienna’s most eligible bachelor falls for a remarkable, effervescent young nurse who flirtatiously promises to break his heart when he is most vulnerable. The Nazis take Austria and begin their "final solution." The expectant newlyweds brave grueling ordeals, but crushing events overtake and eventually separate them. Will the star-crossed lovers reunite, or has Tilly kept her promise?
"This was a fantastic script, well written, well-paced, and delivered a message. Viktor is a compelling protagonist. . . All of the supporting cast feel rounded out... It is a fantastic display of writing prowess!" --Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards
Dr. Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist, mountaineer, and workaholic enjoys the freedoms and perks of being one of Vienna’s most eligible Jewish bachelors. However, his habits and sexual appetite have kept him from finding the true meaning of his life.
Hitler invades Austria. Himmler, and his cousin Karl Dietrich, a Nazi SS Captain and Viktor’s childhood friend, set up their little shop of horrors in Vienna. They confiscate property, terrorize, deport, and murder Jews.
Viktor meets Tilly.
Tilly seduces Viktor with the flirtatious promise that she will make him fall in love with her only break his heart when he is most vulnerable. She says she will do so as revenge for his bad behavior with her closest friend, Heidi, a woman Viktor once used sexually and misled. Enchanted by Tilly, Viktor accepts the challenge. As they begin to fall for each other, the couple engages in risky and heroic efforts to save others from the Nazi death machine.
Tensions mount. Horrors ensue. An unexpected ally tells Viktor to emigrate or risk facing the worst. He doesn’t listen. He can’t leave his parents behind, and he wants to keep what he has built in Vienna. So, he stays and asks Tilly to marry him.
In hindsight, the decision to stay proves pivotal. Tilly is soon pregnant and the Nazis have decreed that Jews are not allowed to be pregnant. But Viktor’s visa has expired, and they no longer have a way out of the country. The Nazis force Tilly and Viktor to end the life of their unborn child.
Then, Himmler orders the deportation of the remaining and most prominent Austrian Jews to Theresienstadt, a ghetto and transfer station in Czechoslovakia. Tilly and Viktor go, along with Viktor’s family. There, Viktor and Tilly meet Rabbi Regina Jonas, the first woman ever to be ordained. Rabbi Jonas befriends Tilly, and helps Viktor overcome his loss of hope and faith, and fully realize the power and efficacy of his own philosophy.
But Hitler and Himmler relentlessly pursue their “final solution” and its execution eventually tears Viktor and Tilly away from each other, and from everyone they know and love.
The war ends.
Viktor searches for Tilly.
Will the star-crossed lovers reunite, or has Tilly kept her promise?
(photo: akg-images / brandstaetter images)
Comparable BioPics:
Possible Cast - LEAD ROLES
TILLY
VIKTOR
Our story opens in Vienna, just before the Anschluss and ends just after VE Day, 1945. The epilogue is set at San Quentin prison, in San Francisco, 1963.
A doctor, psychiatrist, and prolific lover, meets his match in Tilly. Their love transforms him from detached theorist to compassionate lover and mensch. At the hands of the Nazis, he endures years of physical torture and unspeakable cruelty. Through it all, the hope of reuniting with Tilly sustains him, even when he faces the most grievous of horrors.
"Dialogue is a standout area in the script, which is expected as it follows the life of Viktor Frankl, and the Writer delivers skillfully." ---Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards
An flirtatious firebrand with the confidence of a lioness, a keen sense of humor, and highly developed emotional intelligence, Tilly challenges Viktor in ways that help him become the man she sees him as destined to be...
Tilly is fantastic. Her wit and playfulness wreck us as she must abort their child, and then the horrors she endures in the concentration camp will haunt the Reader's mind for some time. It is a fantastic display of writing prowess. ---Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards.
Otto's family and friends represent his reason for living. His two closest friends, Viktor and Hubert, possess unyielding, and very different philosophical approaches to the oppression and hatred they face. Otto will soon have to choose one way, his own way, get through Hell, and become his own man.
Viktor's other closest (and a real life) friend, Hubert joins the resistance as a fighter against the Nazi regime. He takes a stand from the outset, and he, Viktor, and Otto are inseparable, until they can no longer decide their own, respective, fates. Once the lead climber, literally tethered to his friends, Hubert breaks away. Tied to both his time and place, his friends, his unearned enemies, and the faith into which he was born, Hubert's life moves inexorably to it's seemingly fated conclusion.
The troubled, enigmatic childhood companion of Viktor, his siblings, and his friends, Karl Dietrich spends much of his formative years in his cousin Heinrich Himmler's home after a tragic and violent childhood episode that nearly cost him his life. His relationship with Viktor, Jews in general, and the Nazi's with whom he shares a uniform, remains... complicated. Viktor tells him, "There are no good Nazis." And Dietrich does not disagree. He does, however, surprise.
"Karl Dietrich seems aware that he is a part of something evil, and the scenes where he and Frankl see each other's humanity are unsettling and stirring..." THE BLACK LIST
The first ordained female Rabbi in history meets Tilly and Viktor at Thereseinstadt, where they spend years working together and saving lives. Her enlightened spiritual advice helps bring Viktor back from the abyss. Her role in history remains an inspiration to the many thousands of women who have followed in her footsteps.
An elder statesman and kind soul, Hyam provides support to Viktor when he initially finds himself and his family consigned to a concentration camp. He remains a helper, and even becomes a nurse of sorts, who helps Viktor survive and endure in the camps.
A Viennese nurse, early friend of Tilly's and later her fellow inmate at Bergen-Belsen. A loyal, caring friend.
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