Filming of the fairy tale "Sadko" has begun

Filming of the film "Sadko" directed by Ivan Oganesov has begun in St. Petersburg. The new fairy tale will be created by the film companies STV, Welcome Media, ID Production, CGF, Rossiya TV channel, with the support of the Cinema Foundation.

A truly stellar cast will gather on the set. The role of Guslar Sadko will be played by the star of "Eterna" Anton Rogachev. His beloved Lubava will be played by Anna Peresild, who seriously declared herself after the hit TV series "The Word of a Kid. Blood on the asphalt." Nikita Kologrivy and Elizaveta Ishchenko will become a stunning couple — the combat sailor Buslay and the warrior Randgrid. Yuri Stoyanov, Roman Vasiliev, Kristina Babushkina, Alexey Dmitriev and others will appear in other roles of fairy-tale characters.

Costume designer Nadezhda Vasilyeva will dress all the characters in incredible costumes again. She has more than one thousand vivid images and outfits for the heroes of such fabulous blockbusters as "The Flying Ship", "The Hunchback Horse", "At the Behest of the Pike", "Gorynych", "Flint", "Pinocchio" and so on.

The creative producer and composer of the project will be Dasha Charusha ("Centaur", "Young Man", "Hello to my Husband", "Chemistry between us", "Marathon of Desires", "Hardcore"). Filming will take place in St. Petersburg, Priozersk (Leningrad region) and Moscow.Some of Sadko's scenes are shot at SberStudios, the largest virtual production studio in Eastern Europe, located in Pavilion 16 of the legendary Mosfilm, which includes virtual production, volumetric video, motion control and AI VFX. While summer is outside, the film crew is immersed in winter — right here in the pavilion.

The film is scheduled to be released on March 8, 2028. The distributor is NMG Kinoprokat (part of the National Media Group holding).

"As I have said many times, we have made, are making, and will continue to make fairy tales because we love them. Sadko is a new version of the legendary fairy tale. We treated the original source carefully, but added unexpected plot moves: the viewer will find a lot of surprises. It will be a vibrant musical fairy tale with stunning scenery, atmospheric music and talented actors. We want this story to sound in a new way and become close to the modern audience, while preserving the spirit of an authentic Russian fairy tale," said producer Sergey Selyanov.

"It is really a great happiness and good fortune to launch Sadko. After all, this is not just a fairy tale, it is a true story that formed the basis of the Russian cultural code, which is why children study the epic at school. We have preserved all the key moments of the classic work in a new modern interpretation, but at the same time we have built the plot on the powerful love line of our characters, which will be close and understandable to the modern young audience, and the family audience and children will receive fascinating attractions of the underwater kingdom and adventures of Sadko," said producer Dmitry Litvinov.

"For three years we have been developing this large-scale movie, carefully collecting its world, music, visual image and meanings. The film is based on an epic familiar to everyone since childhood, but we tell it in modern cinematic language, revealing in it what is especially important today: the power of talent, loyalty to love, a person's connection with his land, roots and the natural element. A great adventure awaits the audience, an amazing fairy—tale world and powerful musical numbers that, I hope, will touch the hearts of both children and adults," said producer Ekaterina Kononenko.

"For our team, Sadko is an opportunity to create a unique fairy—tale world in which ancient Russian epics are combined with sea legends. We are waiting for underwater realms, fantastic creatures, large-scale sea adventures and many visual wonders that cannot be filmed without modern technology. It is especially interesting to find a balance between recognizable images of Russian folklore and completely new creatures that the viewer has not yet seen on the screen. I want every frame to look like a fairy—tale illustration come to life, but at the same time remain alive and real," said producer Alexander Gorokhov.

Sadko is a story about what talent is worth if you're willing to sell it piece by piece for love, for gold, for friends. We started with a simple question: what will be left of a person if you take away from him the only thing he is the best at? And we found out that the most important thing remains — the soul. We didn't want to tell a tale about a hero who defeats a villain, but a story about a guy who repeatedly finds himself facing impossible choices — and doesn't always choose the right one," said script writer Alexander Arkhipov.

On June 25, Medialogia presented the top 30 Russian series ratings for May of this year. He was led by the Boys project, which scored 2984 points. The second place was taken by the TV series Euphoria (1983 points), and the third place was taken by the Russian Sled (1617 points), which rose by five positions in just a month. The top five also included the anime "Magic Battle" (1378 points) and the TV series "Stranger Things" (1159 points).