Rossiya ramps up feature prod'n
Pubcaster budgets pics at $4-5 million mark
The 100% state-owned channel, a key part of government broadcasting holding VGTRK, looks to be following in the footsteps of rival Channel 1, which has topped local box office with last year's "Night Watch" and this year's "Turkish Gambit."
Thriller "Piranha Hunting" from TV helmer Andrei Kavun and melodrama "Kitaezha" are already shooting, while mining town tragicomedy "The Last Pit" is set to begin in the next month.
Budgets of each are around the $4-5 million mark, with production arranged through the Rekon-TV outfit of helmer Valery Todorovsky ("My Stepbrother Frankenstein"). Todorovsky is the producer responsible for serials and feature production at Rossiya. Distribution is planned through Central Partnership.
"Piranha Hunting" stars top local thesps Vladimir Mashkov ("Papa") and Yevgeny Mironov ("His Wife's Diary"). "Kitaezha" will be directed by Anton Sivers, and has Sergei Bezrukov in a lead role.
The unprecedented success of several recent Russian pics was due in part at least to free, or heavily subsidized, advertising on national TV. Its scale has raised some controversy in the territory, after it was revealed through a national audit body investigation that Channel 1 gave more than 500 ad minutes to support its "Turkish Gambit." Western studio players admit that foreign product just can't match such levels of promotion on the commercial front.
Rossiya played a somewhat similar role in sponsoring this year's release of Alexei Sidorov's actioner "Shadow Boxing," though the outfit wasn't a producer of that film, which was put together by Central Partnership.
Such levels of promo support, if the total package is right, bring almost guaranteed results -- "Night Watch," which was acquired for international release by Fox Searchlight and will be released in coming months around the world, brought in $15.3 million in theatrical receipts. "Turkish Gambit" topped that figure, at north of $18 million. Both led home vid results for at least a month after release.
The trend to fund domestic product in preference to buying foreign film fare I increasing in Russia. Until now Rossiya's production slate has been dominated by high-quality serial adaptations of literary adaptations by classic writers like Dostoevsky and Bulgakov, a version of whose "Master and Margarita" is currently wrapping up.
Over recent summer months, Rossiya's ratings have risen to around the 24-25% mark, taking top place from Channel 1 which before had long been the market leader.
