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- "There was an alternative Petersburg in Major Thunder. We will have an alternative Moscow"
"There was an alternative Petersburg in Major Thunder. We will have an alternative Moscow"
When in 2017, at that time, an unknown young director Alexander Hunt released the road movie "How Vitka Garlic took Lech Shtyr to the home for the Disabled," it was a revelation to the viewer. The film quickly acquired the status of a folk film, and Hunt became the hope of the Russian art mainstream. The experimental teen thriller "Offseason" consolidated this status. Now Hunt is working on a series from the "universe" of "Major Thunder", an international project called "Fury" and claims to be a key event next year. Most of the project is kept in the strictest secrecy, even the star cast has been asked not to make it public yet, so for now you can find out what Hunt himself thinks about his work. Izvestia talked to him almost on the eve of the start of filming and got into the mood of the approaching "Fury".
"Nika Chaikina is obsessed with revenge"
— The series "Fury" — what is it? So far, all we know is that this is a high-budget international series based on the "universe" of "Major Thunder". What is this story and why should we wait for it?
— Let me tell you from the beginning. Bubble Studios and Plus Studio are engaged in the development of the film universe about Major Thunder and now other characters. They suggested that I make a story about Nika Chaikina, aka the Red Fury. This is the heroine of the comic book "universe" of Major Thunder, and the series "Fury" is part of the expansion of this "universe" in the cinema. At first, I didn't understand why they offered it to me. Where am I and where are the comics? But I took the script and read it. And I found that it has a strong plot grain. Nika Chaikina is obsessed with revenge. I was hooked by this character, and I started thinking. At some point, I was watching the anime "Chainsaw Man" and suddenly realized that I know how to tell the story of Niki Chaikina! I outlined my directorial vision to producers Artyom Gabrelyanov and Mikhail Kitaev, they became interested, and very soon, in the summer, filming will begin.
"So fast?"
— I've actually been living with this project for more than six months, so I'm pretty deeply immersed in the history, the Bubble universe, and the processes. The project is a complex one, and the genre is still new to our industry. If you make a mistake, you'll end up parodying or copying what others have done. It is necessary that this does not happen. Therefore, we invent a new language to drag this exaggerated, twisted world into our reality.
— How is this done?
— In "Major Thunder" there was an alternative Petersburg. We will have an alternative Moscow, and we want to invent it. I like this task. Moscow has changed a lot in recent years, and in this amazing and multifaceted city, I know many places that have not yet been shown on the screen. Moscow, which even Muscovites do not know, is a beautiful, surprisingly different, and therefore unique city. I know him, and I want to bring a lot of places to the screen in our project that have rarely been seen before.
— Since the project is international, does it mean that there will be not only Moscow, but also other cities and other countries?
— Yes, because the main character is a thief, she belongs to a secret organization that deals with "cases" all over the world, so we will have several expeditions. Something is happening in St. Petersburg, something is happening in the camp where the girl is being trained. Maybe there will be Asia or the Middle East. There are prerequisites for this in the script — there is a wide geography of action, so we are looking at different locations both in Russia and abroad.
— And what is the budget for production?
— The project budget is ambitious, as is the project itself. Of course, you always want more than you have the resources in your hands, but I can assure you that we are doing everything so that the viewer sees every ruble invested in the final work. We have a large-scale filming geography, great casting, and lots of tricks and special effects.
— How many episodes will there be?
— Six episodes, running 40 minutes each.
— It seems to me that when a director-author is offered such a scenario, he can immediately recall Cantemir Balagov from Last of Us or, say, Chloe Zhao, who made a blockbuster for Marvel. It's a risk, it's a matter of principles, creative freedom, nerves — how did you answer it?
— And I think that you can remember not only these directors, but also Christopher Nolan, Taika Waititi, Tim Burton. We can recall the "Matrix". One of the first questions that arises is what kind of control will I have? Where will the producers be and where am I as an author? I immediately asked the producers about it. And he asked why they had called me. To which they replied: "And who in our country makes such a movie at all? We are looking for a director who will give us his vision." On the other hand, I never thought of myself as a director of an author's cinema. I've always been interested in movies that reach the audience. So no, I didn't find this offer strange for me personally. On the contrary, to enter into a production where there are many complex scenes, where there is a different montage, where there is action — it's super, great! Plus, it's an opportunity to work with big artists, which is what I've always wanted to do, to invent their characters with them.
— We'll talk about them again!
— I'm currently in the preparatory period, working with the guys who are involved in staging stunt scenes and fights. These are incredible kung-do professionals from Kazakhstan, led by Robert Kuhn. In general, an incredibly cool and talented team has gathered, perhaps the top professionals in their fields: our cameraman Max Zhukov is a great master, he shot "Major Thunder", "The Master and Margarita", "Pinocchio". The artist Timofey Ryabushinsky, who worked on "The Good Boy" and "Black Spring".
"We will announce the name of the actress soon"
— But the most important thing is that you were allowed to rewrite the script? Or should I follow the coordinates that have already been marked?
— I don't feel like a hired performer at all. We hear each other, we finish the story, we significantly refine the script. That is, it's not like I came to everything ready and I just need to negotiate with the actors so that they just play their roles.
— Is there a right to the final installation?
— We still have to live to see the installation. Right now we're doing storyboarding, sitting with a storyboard artist, with an operator, and coming up with it. We need to make it all work in the installation. It seems to me that we go through all the stages in the union. I don't have the feeling that the producers are above me, who expect me to do only some part of the work.
"I see." But since filming is coming soon, it means that the actors have already been approved. Who is it?
— Most of them do. We've been looking for a main character for a long time, and we've seen a lot of great young actresses. The heroine is 20 years old, and we needed someone who was suitable for the character. I think that very soon we will announce the name of the actress who will play the role of Niki Chaikina.
— When you came to the project, were the actors mostly already approved?
— No, the actors were chosen together, this is my decision as a director. There will definitely be some characters from the Thunder movies. For example, Dima Dubin, who will be played by Alexander Seteikin, as in all the films of the Major Thunder franchise.
— And the Thunder itself will appear?
— I won't tell you yet.
— Did Alexey Serebryakov try out for you?
— And it's like we don't have a suitable character for him, so I'd love to offer him one. And the Weaver, too. I really want to work with them again — now with some new baggage.
— I saw a message in the summer that you finished the movie "Who loves Pankratov?" What's wrong with him?
— I want to finish the installation one of these days. This is a job that we shot on our own, in the city of Yakhrom. Let's see what the fate of the film will be. The plot is complicated. It's a black comedy. When we finish the job, we'll think about where to move it further.
— There's not much time left, because then we'll have to deal with the Fury. By the way, when are you planning to finish it?
— We are waiting for about 70-80 shifts, maybe even a little more. We have to finish filming by the end of the year, and then we'll go into postproduction, which will take several months. The series itself will be released on Kinopoisk in 2026. We'll find out the exact date later.
— Comics, like everything that is done on them, is a space of reflection, a space of a battle of values. In general, everything is like in our current global reality. And how will this manifest itself in "Fury"? What values are they talking about?
— When I think about this story now, I always turn it towards the family, with relationships within the family. It seems to me that this resonates with my first film about Victor Garlic, and this story can be considered as a national one. My heroine is trying to restore justice for her lost father. If in "Thunder" you can find a roll call with the hero of "Brother" Balabanov and in general the desire to support this relay somehow, then here I do not set myself such a task. I'm interested in talking about where the desire for revenge comes from and what revenge is all about.
A shot from the movie: "How Vitka Garlic took Lech Shtyrya to a home for the disabled"
— So we shouldn't expect questions about, for example, national self-determination, about a generation that is 20 years old and which we don't know?
— When I was shooting Offseason, I talked a lot with the young guys and then I talked at the screenings too. What have I learned about them? For example, that today they most often do not adhere to any community, they do not try to associate themselves with any group that strives for any one goal. But almost everyone is seriously thinking about how to realize themselves.
— Doesn't it feel like they're not very interested in talking about values, ideals, and common subjects? Because they're preoccupied with themselves, but they're quite pragmatic about the rest?
"I'll bet." I don't think it's just pragmatism, but there is an understandable emotion and a holistic system of values. I see that young people today are very caring, they speak out. Teenagers and those who are older can be very principled. For example, if a conversation about politics comes up, there is an explosion of opinions, a desire to formulate it in your own way, and speak out.
Any generation is always accused of something, they put some labels on it. Dinara Asanova wrote that all teenagers are some kind of half—crazy people. But you can take her text, read it out now, and everyone will think that this is about the new generation, and not about the guys from the 1980s. I personally think that a cunning generation is growing up. It learns that you have to be smarter than this reality, and maybe that's not a bad thing. For example, Dmitry Danilov wrote a wonderful play "The Man from Podolsk", which is being shown in theaters, and a film has been made based on it. This is a form of utterance about reality, the territory of the absurd, allegories. Perhaps we will soon see that a new generation has completely occupied and mastered this territory. I have a workshop at the Moscow School of Economics right now, and I can see how resourceful these guys are.
— Do they expect to graduate and stay to work here or leave?
— Unlearn it and somehow shoot something. I don't know where they're going. But try to take something off first, and then we'll talk about the rest. For me personally, the territory is here, at my home, in Russia. The right time, the right questions, everything is very acute and intense. Where, if not here and now, to look for history? For example, there are neural networks, even if it seems very banal to talk about them. But I recently saw a guy from Tyumen make a little animated film about graffiti. Very talented and dashing. That is, a story can be told just by sitting in front of a computer. The guys want to shoot and are looking for an opportunity. I don't know where they'll find her. We will help. I tell them: don't be afraid of anything, if you need to take it off on your knee, take it off on your knee.
"It is necessary and important for us to be here"
— It seems to me that there is a problem not only for the artist, but also for the audience. One of her requests is that the cinema, as one wonderful producer says, "speak time." Simply put, as a viewer, I should feel that the authors of films breathe the same air with me, live at the same time. It rarely happens now. There is no connection to the characters, the situation. How will your series tell the time?
"That's exactly what I'm trying to come up with. There is no sense of time, because you are simply presented with reality on the screen. Here you are watching the anime "Chainsaw Man" — and the connection arises. The viewer has something to enter into a dialogue with. And in the movies, it's kind of a solid desert. I was at the Mayak Festival. I watch movies, but it's like from a great distance: no, I'm not there, and I absolutely don't care. The exception is just a few films at the festival, especially the out—of—competition screening of Bakur Bakuradze's "Snow in My Yard", which I think is one of the most striking films in a long time. And then it was released — and it turned out, judging by the cinema fees, no one needed it. It was the same with "Aika" at the time. The audience just didn't go.
I don't want to make a movie that isn't in demand. I want to get in, to reach the audience. Find the form that the viewer needs. I keep trying to come up with an "action movie" so that people really want to see it. So it is now. I'm thinking about the characters in Fury, and I'm thinking about how to find the material to get to them through it. To avoid creating another unnecessary template. I want to invent something.
— You probably had a choice of where to continue making movies. Why did you decide to work in Russia?
— Sometimes it seems to me that we all, commercial films and auteur films, walk around like blind people around a treasure trove or a magical spring. And we still can't find the door that leads to it. I think there are a lot of possibilities here in terms of stories. Yes, they are sometimes difficult to detect and pull out on the screen. But it's strange for me to think about leaving, going somewhere and not doing these stories here. But how do I find this door? No one knows. We need to look for it.
When we rolled the "Offseason", as you know, we organized a big European tour — we went from Portugal to Russia with shows. It was the fall of 2022. And they almost gave us the keys to our houses so that we would not return to Russia. But we didn't even have the thought of staying there. The fact that I stay and work at home in Russia is not an inevitability for me. It's not because I'm afraid that no one needs me there. No, it's a choice. My choice, the choice of my colleagues. It is necessary and important for us to be here. We want to look for ourselves here.
An image from the movie: "Offseason"
And I want to shoot that Russia, which is not enough on the screen. Not just Moscow and St. Petersburg. There's a movie called "Summer will End" — it's cool that it was made in Yakutia. It's an amazing, cinematic place. We shot "Garlic" in Tver — we discovered an interesting, eclectic, colorful space. In the film, all these colors showed up. "Offseason" was filmed in Yekaterinburg — we spent six months there, the whole city helped us make this movie. Surprisingly, it was all completely free. The "Jackpot" was filmed in Vladivostok, they dragged the hills there, some strange snow that seemed to burn out in the sun. Winter without snow, yellow grass, all this is unusual and beautiful. We need to move and develop the production and watching of films in the regions. I hope that Fury and I will participate in this too.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
