Klebanov remakes Johnnie To pic

Russian producer in Asian first

By NICK HOLDSWORTH

MOSCOW — A Russian producer is breaking new ground with the country’s first ever remake of an Asian film and its first co-production for many years with Sweden.

Sam Klebanov, founder of indie distribution house Kino Bez Granits, is filming a Russian version of Hong Kong producer director Johnnie To’s 2004 award-winning criminal drama “Breaking News” (Daai si gin).

The taut drama, where a camera crew captures on live TV the embarrassing defeat police suffer at the hands of a gang of armed robbers before an ambitious young female detective decides to turn the tables by creating a reality-TV show out of a massed police counter attack, was an ideal choice for a Moscow setting, Klebanov told Variety.

Adding a further novel element by making it as a Swedish-Russian co-production, Klebanov — who divides his time between Gothenburg, Sweden and Moscow — believes the Russian version, “Newsmakers” (Goryachiye Novosti), which he co-wrote with Alexander Lungin, will attract new audiences.

With a Swedish director, Anders Banke — who studied at Moscow’s famous film school VGIK, and British d.p. Chris Maris, the film is supported by Western Swedish regional film fund Film I Vast (which has helped fund films by Lukas Moodysson and Lars von Trier) and co-produced by Moscow’s Tandem Pictures (Klebanov and Anna Kachko) and Gothenburg’s Illusion Film (Peter Hiltunen).

“Swapping Hong Kong’s concrete canyons for Moscow’s concrete jungle is idea for an action-packed movie that opens with a shoot-out that will be filmed in the center of the city,” Klebanov said.

The film will also pick up on Russia’s specific media issues: the country is noted for the manipulative use to which media is put by owners and politicians.

Shot in Russian, the $4 million budget film is also seeking an international audience with interest from leading international distributors already evident, Klebanov said.

An American remake of the Johnnie To film, to be shot by Joel Schumacher, is also reportedly planned, although Klebanov said his film would be ready at least a year before Schumacher’s.