|
|
— by Larry Carroll
Over the years, untold numbers of aspiring filmmakers have wondered how, exactly, they might create a visually stunning sci-fi blockbuster capable of shattering box-office records while working with the paltry budget of a small-scale independent film. Together with a few hundred of his associates, Russian director Timur Bekmambetov has finally found the answer. And if Bekmambetov — the man behind the groundbreaking film "Night Watch" — ever gets around to actually meeting those associates, he'll be sure to thank them.
" 'Underworld' is a great movie, but for me it's too serious, too genre," the 45-year-old, bearded Bekmambetov jovially reasoned while discussing his own international smash hit and another recent vampire-centric film franchise. Made for about $4 million, "Night Watch" boasts dazzling special effects that match or even outstrip those found in movies with vastly larger budgets.
And many of those effects were designed by a faceless army of designers whom Bekmambetov has never met.
"Everything was through the Internet," the director revealed of his innovative process. "Nobody knew each other."
"In Russia, we don't have rules, yet," he explained before citing a "Night Watch" scene that features a yellow truck lifted off a street and spun end-over-end above a character.
"That special effect was done by a Russian boy, 25 years old, sitting in a small apartment with a big computer. He doesn't need marketing people, he doesn't need agents — he's just doing his stuff. In Russia, we created a community of 300 people — CG artists, freelancers. They lived in different cities, and we created the software to [allow] them to share tasks."
As the director, Bekmambetov was able to get around the bureaucratic dead-ends and studio interference that plague so much modern filmmaking by embracing the still-developing economic models of his formerly communist nation.
"Every day we sent them tasks and received reports," he recalled. "We paid them with [Internet] money. We were buying hours from them. For example, I would send you an e-mail and say, 'You are a good modeler. I need an airplane. Make your airplane model a little different for me and I will pay you for ten hours' work.' "
Such artists, many of them still living with their parents and/or in school, worked anywhere from a handful of hours to weeks at a time, all in the name of helping Bekmambetov create a bloody, futuristic world with a plot so intricate that even he isn't sure he can describe it.
"The concept is that some years ago, there was a battle between two different powers, people who are not human beings," he said. "They're called 'Others.' They have supernatural powers, and a thousand years ago there was a conflict between them, the 'Dark' and the 'Light,' that nobody won. It was so bloody, so merciless, this fight, that they stopped it and they decided to sign an agreement between the Dark ones and the Light ones."
The story line also includes a jinxed sacrificial virgin, a doll with spider legs and the coming Apocalypse.
"It is difficult to explain, even for me," Bekmambetov laughed, his burly chest heaving.
Giving it one last shot despite the limitations of his broken, but earnest, English, the affable writer/director summed it all up with one core tenet: "We are lucky we are human beings, and that we are not gods. 'Others,' they don't have a choice. We have a choice. Every moment, everyday, we have a choice. We may choose to do something good or do something bad."
For the unfortunate beings trapped within the world of "Night Watch," the battle between Light and Dark Others doesn't concern good and evil but a struggle between those who hope to keep governmental order and the would-be rebels who oppose them. The battle manifests itself through witches, vampires, shape-shifting monsters and a collection of "How did they do that?" moments involving blood, invisibility, insects and a mysterious place known as "The Gloom."
"In the first movie, we are just exploring the first steps within the Gloom," Bekmambetov said, adding that his sequel, "Day Watch," will soon follow the Russia-to-U.S. release pattern, while a third film ("Dusk Watch") will shoot next year. "The Gloom is part of our subconscious; it's a place that tells us of what we're scared. It's the first level. In the second movie there's a second and third level of the Gloom. In the second level of the Gloom, it's much worse."
 |
For as long as there have been movies, undead weirdos have been sucking blood from their victims. Here are some doozies ...
|
|
The trippy sci-fi series has already broken box-office records in several countries, and the recent Russian release of "Day Watch" seemingly introduced its own national holiday, with people celebrating the New Year by attending screenings en masse.
"At the same time, there were three Hollywood movies in Russia: 'Narnia,' 'Harry Potter' and 'King Kong,' " Bekmambetov recalled. "The box office for the three of them was less than the box office for 'Day Watch.' "
Before that sequel makes it onto U.S. screens, however, domestic theatergoers can check out the newly edited first installment, featuring one particularly cool idea that even Russian audiences have never seen.
"We need to have subtitles for an American audience so they know what we're talking about — but we don't need to be ashamed of subtitles," the director said of the thought process behind an innovative technique that has the words blurring, bleeding, typing and screaming while interacting with the onscreen action. "Let's use it as a tool. It provoked us to create a lot of ideas."
To those who've already sat in the theater, mouths agape, as "Night Watch" unfolded before them, Bekmambetov's statement may seem like quite an understatement. This week, the director is taking meetings with movie studios and researching aspects of the United States. He says he's thinking about shooting "Dusk Watch" in Los Angeles, with American actors, in a story that would illustrate that the battle among the Others isn't limited to Mother Russia.
"If they're smart, they will produce sequels," Bekmambetov said of American movie studios. "These first two Russian movies, they could be kind of prequels. We just have to continue to tell the story of this world. What's important is that the world is kept unique, because it is a unique idea. It's much smarter to continue on and say that there was [the first film's antagonist] Anton Gorodetsky in Russia, and he had his problems, and there were the Others, and when we bring it to the United States we see the same situation."
Now that "Night Watch" is finally opening in America, however, one has to wonder if Bekmambetov might suffer the same fate as so many before him, getting swept up by a big-budget American remake that might make him wealthy and would certainly involve industry professionals rather than a vast network of CGI innovators — innovators he might never meet.
Pondering such a scenario, the Russian director grinned, and then spoke plainly.
"No. I don't think they're so stupid to do this."
|
|
|
"Night Watch" Photos
"Night Watch" clip: Don't turn around!
"Night Watch" Trailer