Night Watch

**Epiphany** · 22nd May 2005

Just watched the trailer for this over on the apple site and it looks pretty good.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_se...ch/medium.html

Does anyone know anything about it? The official site says its a russian film, and that

the film surpassed both LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING and SPIDER-MAN 2 at the Russian box office

it also says

The third part of the trilogy will be filmed in English and will be produced by Fox and the Russian broadcaster Channel One Russia, which produced the first two films.

yet the first film is night watch (the trailer they show) and thats advertised as being a fox film. Are the first ones being released in english aswell?? Seems a bit strange to have the first two in russian and then the last one in english. The actors would have to change or it would sound stupid

From google searching i also found this

Fox have already bought the rights to the trilogy and Tarantino is running around the place exclaiming, "...if you only see one movie this year see Night Watch"

so it sounds like it might be worth checking it out

EDIT
Just found this
http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/news.php?id=1832

Any film that outgrossed both Spider-Man 2 and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King at the Russian box office -- where both of those Hollywood imports were huge -- is bound to cause some excitement, especially when it's a slick horror film full of vampires, shape-shifters and other supernatural beings. Since the $4 million Russian-made movie opened in the former Soviet Union last year, grossing $13 million in just three weeks, little had been heard of the film, except that Fox Searchlight had picked it up for international distribution, and stepped in to part-finance the next two films in what looks set to be a major movie trilogy.

In December, the film became Russia's official entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category of the Academy Awards -- a surprising choice given the Academy's reluctance to recognize genre films, let alone those from the horror genre: The Silence of the Lambs, a horror film by definition -- in that it sets out intentionally to horrify -- (despite MGM's insistence that it was a mere thriller) is a notable exception. Then, in late February, Fox finally unveiled the slick new US cut at the Berlin Film Festival, where it screened as part of the Official Selection.

Thankfully, the Russian dialogue (which lends the film a certain exotic frisson) hasn't been dubbed with American voices -- fears had been expressed when it was revealed that screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis (Oliver Stone's Alexander, James Cameron's upcoming Battle Angel) had been hired to script the English language version -- but retro-fitted with the most startling set of subtitles ever to grace a foreign film. Indeed, they are so artful and stylized, one wonders why no one ever thought to make subtitles part of the movie experience as a whole, rather than just slap standard white text throughout. (Co-writer/director Timur Bekmambetov has said that as soon as he realized he would have to subtitle the film, he immediately set about designing them, so presumably this is one area where Fox assisted financially.)

...

Hollywood's recent attempt to bring supernatural creatures to the big screen, in such films as Van Helsing, Underworld and even The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, have floundered for the most part, often because the story and characters seem to be slaves to the special effects, rather than the other way around. Night Watch avoids these pitfalls by making sure it has crucial elements such as a gripping story, strong characters, whip-smart dialogue, and actors capable of delivering great performances before the set-pieces are designed or the special effects technicians are allowed anywhere near the picture.

Americans haven't really worried about the Russians since the Cold War ended. But if Night Watch really is, as the trailer suggests, "the breakthrough film of modern Russian cinema," Hollywood may well have reason to.

Sounds like it might definately be worth looking into

**marcode** · 22nd May 2005

mm.. looks interesting.

that trailer looks like the first in the trilogy, so i think it looks like they are remaking the whole trilogy in english.

not just making the last one in english.

**Tony92** · 22nd May 2005

Looks very promising, special effects look top notch as well, having unknown eastern actors will only add to the films charm, will certainly keep an eye out for this one.