russia

METRO 2033: Gazprom Media Sets 2022 Premiere Date For Russian Sci-Fi Novel Adaptation

Dmitry Glukhovsky’s epic survival sci-fi novel, Metro 2033, is officially on deck for a live-action adaptation. As Leo Barraclough’s Variety piece notes, Gazprom Media holds exclusive rights with in-house banners – TNT-Premier Studios Company, TV-3 Channel and Central Partnership – developing the film. Initially published online in 2002 as an experiment before its 2005 print release, Metro 2033 centers on a young man keen on helping solving the mystery surrounding “The Dark Ones”, creatures feared throughout by the stationed inhabitants of Moscow’s fractitious Metro system following nuclear fallout in 2013. The book has been a major hit around the world in many territories, and is the first of a trilogy of novels. It also spans a wide array of merchandising as it has over the years, including fan novels and video games. Gazprom Media’s acquisition comes nearly decade since Gluhovsky attempted to bring the IP to Hollywood, only to rescind […]

Stepchenko’s VIY 2: MYSTERY OF THE DRAGON’S SEAL Sees Chan And Schwarzenegger Square Off In The Official Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

For writer and director Oleg Stepchenko, the respective journeys toward completing 2014 fantasy epic, Viy, and its upcoming sequel, have both been arduous to say the least. Gladly having climbed over the hill now with the first film reigning in box office success, Stepchenko and the folks at Nashe Kino are looking to repeat their fruition for Russia/China co-production, Viy 2: Mystery Of The Dragon Seal heading to theaters this August. The Russian Czar Peter the Great commissions Jonathan Green, an English traveller, to map the Far East territories of the Russian Empire. Green sets off on yet another long journey, full of unbelievable adventures, which eventually leads him to China. On his way, the famous cartographer makes breath-taking discoveries, meets mysterious creatures, Chinese princesses, deadly masters of oriental martial arts, and even Lun Van, the King of Dragons, himself. What could be more perilous than looking into the eyes […]

THE SCYTHIAN: Don’t Miss These Two Trailers For Rustam Mosafir’s Brutal Sword Epic!

Lee B. Golden III

This one would have been great to list as a Five-A-Day entry but as it stands it’s only come under my radar as of Wednesday. That’s really all there is thusfar to what appears to be Rustam Mosafir’s second turn at the helm, The Scythian, apart from what we can now sample in the latest official trailer heading off its upcoming Russian release in January. These are times when one civilization is replacing another. A new era is about to begin in Central Eurasia. Scythians, the proud warriors, are all but gone. The few of their descendants have become ruthless mercenary assassins, the “waves of Ares.” Lutobor, is a soldier with a difficult task at hand. He becomes involved in internecine conflicts and sets off on a perilous journey to save his family. His guide is a captive Scythian by the name of Weasel. Lutobor and Weasel are enemies. They […]

Trailer For Legendary Russian Fantasy Epic, FURIOUS, Rages Online

Lee B. Golden III

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in writing about film in the last several years is to not drop the ball on places like Russia. Here you’ll learn of Ivan Shurhovetskiy’s own directotial debut in the works for an April release next year with the film, Furious, and needless to say, that it looks! With that in mind, it’s also important to note that at some point the production decided to do away with making an historical period piece, and instead, make something a bit more fanciful with fantasy and spectacle. Films like Immortals, 300 and its 2014 sequel come to mind what with its production base at Central Partnership credit for titles hefty on visual gloss and scope like Duelist and Feodor Bondarchuk’s Stalingrad. Whether or not it was the right choice doesn’t seem to be an issue here because the latest trailer itself has already drawn some positive […]

GUARDIANS Unleash Their Power In The Second Trailer For Andreasyan's New Movie

Lee B. Golden III

If you’re new to the ambitious spectacle that lies ahead for Sarik Andreasyan’s latest feat, Guardians, you have time! The film rolls out in Russia on February 23, 2017 and is already the subject of a potential franchise should the prospects meet the result, and for all things considered in today’s film climate, there’s no reason for it not to. The narrative is devoutly geared toward superhero movie-going audiences and has a terrific look about itself, featuring a raft of characters anchoring the superpowered anarchy that permeates this film – four uniquely gifted individuals combining their powers to face off with an enormous evil in the form of an army of soldiers and heavily-gunned robots, and a superpowered madman? Shoo… this one’s got the goods, and the second official trailer now circulating online this week shows that off accordingly. SYNOPSIS: Set during the Cold War, a secret organization named “Patriot” […]

Alexei Mizgirev's THE DUELIST Gets A Brand New Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

From the crew that brought you Fedor Bondarchuk’s Stalingrad comes director Alexei Mizgirev’s newest, The Duelist. The film now has a September 29 release moved up from its previous October date which should be good for anyone keen on what looks to be a slick, stylish period Russian period thriller. SYNOPSIS An adventure film, with dramatic and thriller elements set against the backdrop of palaces and the noble view of the Russian capital, The Duelist centers on Yakovlev, a retired officer, who returns to St. Petersburg from a long exile. While in the city, he fights as a duelist’s representative. (Nineteenth-century Russian duel law allowed for a duelist to be replaced by any one person.) Though Yakovlev fights for money, he also seeks honor and revenge against those who disgraced him, therein, challenging the Russian Providence. Yakovlev fearlessly plays with destiny as an example of traditional romantic characters from the […]

THE NIGHT GUARD Lands An Official Trailer For Velyvis's New Fantasy Action Horror

Lee B. Golden III

If you’re keen on any and all in Russian film’s latest in action and horror, director Emilis Velyvis’s new venture, The Night Guard, certainly leaves off with a little something. The film is poised for an August release and a new trailer is officially online with more exciting footage to spare with actor Ivan Yankovsky starring. SYNOPSIS: Pasha Smolnikov is constantly having the same dream – he stands on a rooftop of a Moscow skyscraper, hearing someone’s voice behind his back whispering: “Go on… Fly!”. He is making a step forward and… Wakes up. Pasha is an errand-boy at a local express delivery service. It’s not a dream job, but Pasha hates sitting in the office chair – he waits until the fate will give him a chance to show himself. One night, while delivering a package to the fashionable hotel, Pasha witnesses a mysterious girl being kidnapped. He steps […]

Renat Davletyarov's PURE ART Paints A New Trailer For The Upcoming Erotic Thriller

Lee B. Golden III

Director Renat Davletyarov has a thing for skin and colorworks for his newest endeavor. Couple these with a few doses of hard-hitting suspense and you have what looks like a stellar opener later this year with action and intrigue for the release of Pure Art later this year in Russia. Leading the way is actress Anna Chipovskaya as a beautiful photographer forced to begin her own investigation after finding herself at the center of a unsolved murder and a fraud case involving painting. Sexual intrigue and danger awaken the very core of this story as it’s seemingly told with bullets flying and high-speed chases and such. Fun times! Watch the trailer below!

Moscow Is Ground Zero In The New Trailer For Russian Action Horror, THE NIGHT GUARD

Lee B. Golden III

Crime and comedy director Emilis Velyvis is seuging into something much more spectacular with a film clearly aiming as his own response to films like Twilight and Underworld. For this, we turn to the less comically-leaning The Night Guard, (formerly Wings) which opens in 3D in Russia this summer and boasting a darker and moodier tone that nonetheless accomodates some big scale visuals, slick editing and action-packed setting. Actor Ivan Yankovsky leads the film from a script by Oleg Malovichko which tells of a delivery boy who thwarts an attack on a woman by a mysterious horde of creatures, and incident that puts him in the throes of a secret organization working with the police to monitor and intervene supernatural beings living on Earth. Of course, a love story also ensues which also guarantees a little something for the YA crowd, but the usual protagonistic plot points of self-discovery also […]

GUARDIANS: Saric Andreasyan's Fantastic Quartet Of Superheroes Unite In The Newest Trailer!

Lee B. Golden III

Russian superhero movie fanfare is abound with the time it has taken for Mafia: Survival Game helmer Saric Andreasyan to unleash the fury of his latest feat, Guardians. Boasting four uniquely gifted individuals with enhanced DNA as per Andrei Gavrilov’s script, Andreasyan stepped things up a notch with a promo that leaked out during events at the European Film Market in Berlin as sales went underway, and to plenty of avail with a clip that surely landed on radar for fans and superhero geeks internet-wide. That said and after all said and done, it’s high time to show the people what the hype is all about, and the production has done so accordingly with the first full trailer that introduces us to our heroes in their respective elements – Khan (Sanzhar Madiyev), a martial artist and windbender with enhanced speed and strength and sharp weaponry, Ler (Sebastian Sisak-Grigoryan), a multi-kinetic […]

Check Out The Latest Trailer For Russian Period Horror Thriller, GHOULS

Lee B. Golden III

I don’t know a whole lot about Russian cinema, but clearly they’ve got the gears rolling on making things purely epic. The same can easily be said for director Sergei Ginzburg’s new horror thriller, Ghouls, inspired by Alexei Tolstoy’s classic short story, The Family of the Vourdalak from the late 1800s. The film looks something fierce judging by its latest trailer with a story involving a priest, a love story with a beautiful damsel, and wall-scaling vampires and other matters of supernatural villainy. I can’t find plot anywhere online and I fail at deciphering Russian, but from the looks of things this should please audiences this September upon its release. Check it all out below!

Catch The Trailer For Russian Sci-Fi Survival Thriller, DANCING TO DEATH

Lee B. Golden III

Director Andrei Volgin’s new film looks lik brings a little something different to the “dance movie” arena. And by “a little different”, I mean you likely have not seen a Mad Max/Hunger Games like setting for a dance movie like in his latest, Dancing To Death. Ivan Zhvakin leads the cast with a story set in a post-apocalyptic Moscow in the year 2070 where young contestants are forced to compete in a deadly, sacrificial dance tournament to keep the city afloat. Zhvakin’s role, Kostya, eventually finds love in all the choas, which of course ups the stakes a bit and sets up what looks to be a brutal finish. A trailer has been going viral since early last month but you can check it out below in all it’s slick, terrifying and awesome glory following its production in Moscow last year. Lusha Ilyashenko, Nikita Volkov, Alexander Tyutin and others also […]

Sanzhar Madiyev Slices And Dices In A New Clip From Saric Andreasyan’s GUARDIANS: SOVIET UNION SUPERHEROES

Lee B. Golden III

Courtesy of Sanzhar Madyiev Superhero movie fans as of late have been keen on some leaked footage from events over at the European Film Market for a movie long in the making, and one that’s sure to garner more interest over time. Formely known as Guardians, the film in question is Guardians: Soviet Union Superheroes from American Heist helmer Saric Andreasyan with a script by Andrei Gavrilov, and comes at a time no better than now as staples like Marvel and DC already have their feet dug in alongside other properties like Valiant, Vertigo and Icon. SYNOPSIS: Set during the Cold War, a secret organization named “Patriot” gathered a group of Russiansuperheroes, altering and augmenting the DNA of four individuals, in order to defend the homeland from supernatural threats. The group includes representatives of the different nationalities of the Soviet Union, which each one of them have long been hiding their true […]

LIGHTS… CAMERA… SHOWDOWN!: An Interview With Alexander Nevsky

Lee B. Golden III

January had a few setbacks, but still kept me busy in the thick of a few things currently trending in the world of action cinema. Russian action star and award-winning bodybuilder Alexander Nevsky has proven relevant in that regard, having come under my radar in the last few years with the long-awaited release of his latest murder mystery thriller, Black Rose with actress Kristanna Loken. More to the point, it just so happens that Nevsky has become pretty big at home in Russia, and perhaps big enough that it has earned him the clout needed to grow as a film professional in acting, producing and even journalizing having become a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Bearing this in mind and still with Nevsky in his element working in action movies and mingling with the right people, I’d say Nevsky’s prospects are looking quite good at this juncture. Operating […]

Andrey Kravchuk's Trailer For VIKING Is An Opus Of Fire, Blood And Warfare

Lee B. Golden III

You have to give it to director Andrey Kravchuk this week. Having been in development for a few years and finally making sales rounds this past Spring and Summer, his latest endeavor, Viking is garnering some heavy attention ahead of its December 22 release in Russia next year. Based largely on 11th century East Slavic manuscripts, the film stars Danila Kozlovsky as a royal son who pairs with an old warrior to assemble an army and face the man who killed his father and older brother, his power-hungry younger brother. The trailer is online and viral via Russian media sites, emulating a dark and wintery setting, grim luster, raging viking warfare in a three-minute opus of pure fire, blood and vegeance with stunning visuals and drama. It’s pretty ambitious and fair that this would rightly be hard to pass up. Watch the trailer below!

A Priest Takes On The Yakuza In The New Trailer For PRIEST: CONFESSIONS OF A SAMURAI!

Lee B. Golden III

Actor Cary Tagawa‘s career is something he wholly welcomes as distinctively unusual. His latest role in Yegor Baranov‘s international Yakuza crime thriller, Priest: Confessions Of A Samurai is finally on par for a November opening in Russia, and for a film production relatively marred by the language barriers that followed, it’s a film that undoubtedly benefits Tagawa in just the way he prefers. SYNOPSIS: The story’s protagonist Takuro Nakamura, baptized as father Nikolai, is the priest of the Japanese Orthodox Church who used to be a professional sportsman and now is the blood brother of one of the influential clans yakuza. Once he could not pass by the violence and helped an ordinary girl getting to grips with one of the groups hostile to his brother. The war of yakuza clans is imminent. Having become the hostage of the criminal skirmish the priest faces a lethal risk. Nakamura is sent […]

Watch The New Teaser For VOR!

Lee B. Golden III

Moviegoers in Asia can expect to see actor Philippe Joly appearing in the slick new action comedy, From Vegas To Macau (a.k.a. The Man From Macau) starring Chow Yun-Fat later this month, in addition to the latest Longman Leung/Sunny Luk directorial pairing for Helios much later this year. For now though, you can check out the first official full teaser for his latest labor of love from Drifting Pictures and McSoli Productions in the form of martial arts gangster epic, Vor. Kicking things off for Drifting Pictures and McSoli productions, the new film is based on earlier efforts for a shortfilm which ultimately expanded into a much bigger project with larger potential for a feature film, which now sees Joly starring in, as well as writing, executive producing, editng and debuting as a director. Vor is currently in post-production and is expected to hit the film festival circuit for buyers […]

STALINGRAD 3D Set To Fire Away At North American IMAX Screens This February

Lee B. Golden III

Director Fedor Bondarchuk is touring the world in select countries to share his latest explosive venture in film with the forthcoming release of the World War II epic, Stalingrad 3D. Despite some mixed reviews, the film became the highest grossing movie upon its domestic theatrical Release in October. And through the help of its upcoming one-week engagement in North America through Sony (Columbia Pictures), Bondarchuk is ready to show the rest of us why. Ergo, the press release: Columbia Pictures will release Fedor Bondarchuk’s Stalingrad in the United States for a one-week exclusive engagement in IMAX 3D theatres nationwide on Feb. 28. The 3D World War II drama has recently become the highest-grossing Russian movie of all time, earning $66.1 million in its six-week theater run. Stalingrad, which is Russia’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film to the Academy Awards, is also the first Russian movie made completely in […]

Review: A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD

Lee B. Golden III

Well, I went and saw Die Hard 5 last night. It isn’t better than Die Hard 4, just a little bigger in size and scope with a lot of explosions and car/truck crashes, but it brings something worth looking forward to when Die Hard 6 comes out. It was larger in scope, taking place in Russia amidst political turmoil and unrest, and holds its own with epic gun battles action scenes to keep viewers interested. To be honest, I missed a good few bits of it toward the end because I was falling asleep. That could be because it was real late at night and my body started shutting down in my seat because of it. But to be even more honest, this is the first time in my history as a filmgoer that I have fallen asleep in front of an action film (missing one or two minutes every […]

FREERUNNER ALEXANDR GISYCH IN “ZLATOUST”

Lee B. Golden III

(Originally posted 2/8/13) Alexandr Gisych, (a.k.a. Shade) recently uploaded a new 17-minute short film titled, Zlatoust, based on the name of his home town in Russia. In the following film, he takes us on a journey, narrating his story while touring his beloved town with his younger brother, Alexey. Together, they film the vast and unique structures that set up an epic stage for Alexandr’s amazing stuntwork and parkour performance, running leaps and bounds between parks, graveyards, staircases, rocks, building rooftops, gaps, narrow platforms, and even living rooms. Through it all, Alexandr’s skills as a freerunner serve a much deeper narrative, illustrating how Zlatoust plays major role in defining the relationship between the city’s architectural and cultural past, and individual freedom.Through the film’s music and Alexandr’s athleticism, this short film is a beauty to see and listen to on his YouTube channel below, ShadeZlat. *Be advised, while the film is […]