Movies
Bekmambetov’s ‘Twilight Watch’ in Peril, Trilogy Doomed?
Originally announced as DUSK WATCH via 20th Century Fox, it has been nearly a year since Timur Bekmambetov’s Twilight Watch was conceived. The film was to be the final film in the Russian trilogy that began with the infamous NIGHT WATCH, only Bekmambetov went off to shoot WANTED for Universal Pictures instead. B-D reporter BC caught up with the director to find out exactly what is going on with the project, the news isn’t good…
While out doing promotional duties for his American debut, WANTED (which is a damn good movie), we asked director Timur Bekmambetov about the status of the next NIGHT WATCH film, aka TWILIGHT WATCH, which was announced way back when as the first English film in the franchise.
“It’s a big mess! I don’t know what will happen with this project,” he reveals to Bloody-Disgusting. “WANTED took its place. WANTED became the American version of NIGHT WATCH. So for the moment I am not doing this.”
Whether this means the film will never be made, or simply handed over to another director is unknown, but Timur seems worried about repeating himself so soon.
“I don’t know what I could add, how to make it different. Right now it would just be another Wanted.”
But he’s not entirely giving up on vampires; the visionary director still plans on filming THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR, which is about “vampires knights looking for the Holy Grail”. He’s also still producing the animated sci-fi/fantasy NINE with Tim Burton, so there will be plenty of Bekmambetov goodness to make up for the possible loss of Twilight Watch. And for DAY WATCH fans: we also asked which Timur thinks is a more powerful object: WANTED’S ‘Loom of Fate’ or DAY WATCH’S ‘Chalk of Destiny’. Timur laughed and then pondered it for a bit, before deciding that “The Chalk” was indeed more powerful.
WANTED hits theaters on June 27th, and Timur’s extraordinary WATCH films are hitting Blu-ray (Woo!) later this summer.
If you want to watch a fun movie, watch a Ryuhei Kitamura movie. Whether it’s 2000’s Versus, 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars, 2008’s The Midnight Meat Train or 2022’s underseen The Price We Pay, Kitamura always knows how to deliver a wild and crazy good time.
Up next from Ryuhei Kitamura? Deadline reports that he’ll be directing Thrill Ride, which sounds a bit like the best parts of Final Destination 3… expanded into a feature film!
Deadline details, “the English-language film will tell the story of a group of people, including two young women, who are trapped upside down on a roller coaster taken over by a mysterious saboteur threatening to drop them all one-by-one to their deaths.”
Film Bridge International is launching the project for sales ahead of the Cannes market.
Chad Law and Christopher Jolley wrote the screenplay.
“Thrill Ride is exactly the type of high-concept based thriller that our customers are looking for in the marketplace,” said Film Bridge’s Ellen Wander and Jordan Dykstra. “With Ryuhei at the helm, we know his vision and execution will deliver thrills of the highest quality.”
“As a hardcore rollercoaster fan since I was young, I immediately fell in love with this script filled with suspense, action, crazy ups and downs, turns, loops, and corkscrews at maximum speed,” adds Kitamura. “I can’t wait to get on a ride and bring life to the wildest rollercoaster imaginable.”
We’re already seated. Stay tuned for more on Thrill Ride as we learn it.
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