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Russian ‘Empire V’ to “Redefine the Vampire Genre”

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Fans of Timur Bekmambetov’s Day Watch franchise get ready for more Russian vamps as cult Russian novelist Viktor Pelevin‘s vision of modern Russia as a vampire nation is to be turned into a feature film by New York and Moscow-based writer-director-producer Victor Ginzburg, who has acquired the rights.

Ginzburg, who released his first feature last month, an adaptation of Pelevin’s “Generation P” — a bizarre journey through the drugs and power-driven world of advertising in Russia in the early 1990s — says Empire V is a loose sequel that takes off in even more weird directions.

This film is going to redefine the vampire genre — which Pelevin has already done in the book,” said Ginzburg.

More inside.
It is an unbelievable discourse on current human society and its obsession with blood, beauty and money, which at the core is a coming of age story of a young vampire and a love story set in contemporary Moscow.

For those who have seen “Generation P” — with psychedelic mushroom-induced trips into the realms of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar figure, but o vampires — the word ‘sequel’ may be misleading.

The first film’s hero, Babylon Tatarsky is, Ginzburg, says “an accidental figure who figures for five minutes” in the sequel.

Ginzburg, who is in funding talks with a western investment fund and major television channels in Russia, says he has a first draft of a script for the sequel and is mulling whether to shoot in Russian or English and whether or not to make it in 3D.

He hopes to be in pre-production by spring 2012.

I know people think Russian films don’t travel,” Ginzburg said. “But I’m an American filmmaker, and to me Pelevin is more like William Burroughs or William Gibson — somewhere between a state of mind and a state of shock.

Generation P — a $7 million indie-financed project that was four years in the works — has made $5 million at the Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakh box office since it was released mid-April with 540 prints.

Horror movie fanatic who co-founded Bloody Disgusting in 2001. Producer on Southbound, V/H/S/2/3/94, SiREN, Under the Bed, and A Horrible Way to Die. Chicago-based. Horror, pizza and basketball connoisseur. Taco Bell daily. Franchise favs: Hellraiser, Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. Horror 365 days a year.

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Matilda Firth Joins the Cast of Director Leigh Whannell’s ‘Wolf Man’ Movie

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Pictured: Matilda Firth in 'Christmas Carole'

Filming is underway on The Invisible Man director Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man for Universal and Blumhouse, which will be howling its way into theaters on January 17, 2025.

Deadline reports that Matilda Firth (Disenchanted) is the latest actor to sign on, joining Christopher Abbott (Poor Things),  Julia Garner (The Royal Hotel), and Sam Jaeger.

The project will mark Whannell’s second monster movie and fourth directing collaboration with Blumhouse Productions (The Invisible Man, Upgrade, Insidious: Chapter 3).

Wolf Man stars Christopher Abbott as a man whose family is being terrorized by a lethal predator.

Writers include Whannell & Corbett Tuck as well as Lauren Schuker Blum & Rebecca Angelo.

Jason Blum is producing the film. Ryan Gosling, Ken Kao, Bea Sequeira, Mel Turner and Whannell are executive producers. Wolf Man is a Blumhouse and Motel Movies production.

In the wake of the failed Dark Universe, Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man has been the only real success story for the Universal Monsters brand, which has been struggling with recent box office flops including the comedic Renfield and period horror movie The Last Voyage of the Demeter. Giving him the keys to the castle once more seems like a wise idea, to say the least.

Wolf Man 2024

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