MOSCOW Russian helmer Sergei Bodrov, most recently in the international eye for the success of his Genghis Khan epic "Mongol," is starting his own production company, Bodrov Film Production, with a slate of five films in preparation.

He may be working on future projects with CTB producer Sergei Selyanov, who was partly behind "Mongol," and exploiting both Russian public and private funding, as well as international coin.

For the director himself, the "Mongol" follow-up (provisionally titled "The Great Khan") is likely the first task. " 'Mongol 2' will be ready next year. I want to direct it. Money will come from Russian public and private sources, Kazakhstan and the U.S. Many of our 'Mongol' distributors are ready to participate in the next film," Bodrov said.

Projected budget is around $35 million.

The other main epic project on Bodrov's new slate is "Sultan Bey Bars," due to be shot in Arabic, on a similar $35 million budget. "It's a great story written by Ermek Tursunov, a young scriptwriter from Kazakhstan, a historic epic movie set in Egypt, Syria and Jordan. We are finishing the script and will go to pre-production at the end of the year — we haven't confirmed the director yet.

The connections to Central Asia, in particular Kazakhstan, remain close. Bodrov made his first two films at Almaty's Kazakh Film Studios, went back there to complete another epic, "The Nomad," two years ago, and has been developing local talent, such as Guka Omarova, co-writing and producing her debut pic "Schizo" as well as her upcoming "The Native Dancer."

Future projects may bring him closer to Russia, though. "I'm also developing the script of 'Hope Against Hope' — about the Russian poet Osip Mandelshtam, who was killed in Stalin's gulag. This movie was on my wish list for years."

Comments (0)