«BK»: Igor Alexandrovich, first of all, I must ask you about the results of the year. Did 2010 turn out well for you?
IGOR TOLSTUNOV: On the whole, I am satisfied with the results of the year. For us, the results of the year are not only the theatrical box office but also new projects that we are starting, and we started several new projects at once. The company «PROFIT» also has television production, which is also in a continuous process. As for the box office, we are not satisfied with everything. Unfortunately, the film THE STRANGER, our joint project with Konstantin Ernst, turned out to be underappreciated. In my opinion, it was extremely interesting, but, as they say, «didn't catch on». We certainly counted on more. As for the project ABOUT LUV, which recently came out in release, it performed absolutely at the level of our expectations. We were aware that this story with middle-aged characters was unlikely to greatly interest the current theatrical audience, therefore it performed just as we had planned. Nevertheless, the halls filled up, and those viewers who came with an understanding of what kind of film they were going to watch, it seems to me, remained, on the whole, satisfied. The «word of mouth» on the film was good. This year the project «The School» was also finished. And it performed with a success and resonance that we had not counted on.
«BK»: And in the coming year, do you have projects that may face the same success and loud public resonance? Do you have many «sleeper hits» in reserve?
TOLSTUNOV: You know, lately an impression has arisen that either Russian cinema as a whole is «sleeping», or, at best, these are «sleeper hits» (laughs). As a person who has been involved in cinema my entire life, I am irritated by all this talk — about how the viewer does not want to watch Russian cinema. This is, rather, populism. Of course, there is no smoke without fire. But we all understand that the viewer willingly watches only what he likes. If there is worthy cinema — then he will watch it, whether it is Russian or not — is not important. There is a certain global problem — why the viewer does not watch Russian cinema as well as we would like. But this is a separate, very large topic.
«BK»: Let us return to specific release plans. In February your film ON THE HOOK! is coming out.
TOLSTUNOV: Yes. We are releasing a picture in the genre of romantic adventure comedy which now will finally bear the title ON THE HOOK! At the beginning it was called NUMBER 13, but we came to the conclusion that this is not the most successful title for the film. With it the viewer could not orient himself — there was no proper emotional coloring. By trial and error we arrived at the title ON THE HOOK! This is an idiomatic expression, it has a double meaning, and that's good. The film itself, in our opinion, turned out to be a light and comfortable viewing and entertainment picture. We count on the viewer, who ends up in the cinema, actually resting over these one and a half hours. Because the actors are all young and beautiful, three quarters of the picture takes place in Thailand, and there — the sea, sun, beauty. There are also a lot of amusing collisions inside the plot. All this gave us the possibility to strike some kind of cheerful spark. It is gratifying that the participants of «Cinema Expo», who in September were able to see a ten-minute cut with working sound and image, supported the film with applause. Viewers felt that this would be something pleasant.
«BK»: Have you already dealt with questions of promotion of the picture? If so, tell us in more detail what interesting things you are planning in this regard.
TOLSTUNOV: We have indeed already concerned ourselves with questions of promotion. We already have a full set of presentation materials, which we will present at the winter Film Market. This will be a ready-made set of «indoor» for cinemas: with standees, mobiles, cups and other attributes. We will send it out from December 13, with the start of the distribution of THE THREE HEROES AND THE SHAMAKHAN QUEEN. By the way, our trailer will be attached to this release. The budget for the release of the picture will be about $3 million (with costs for prints and logistics). I can already say that direct paid advertising will cost us $2.2—2.3 million. Plus we will have certain special conditions from TV channels. Direct advertising will be placed on Channel One, «TNT» and «STS», in a quite noticeable volume. Honestly, we don't have any over-the-top expectations, so we are trying to be as adequate as possible in our expenditures and forecasts. But we expect the picture to perform significantly better than average pictures, and, moreover, we want to believe that by the results of the year the film will be in the top ten highest-grossing. At the December Film Market we will show the already-finished film.
«BK»: The plans are quite bold — especially given the competition the project will face in February…
TOLSTUNOV: We very much count on reciprocal help from cinemas. I understand that around New Year cinemas will have a great influx of projects, especially multiplexes. Competition has not been canceled. But we are simply counting on cinemas also showing some share of ingenuity and putting all projects on equal footing. I mean placement of trailers, trailers on plasma screens, promotional materials, posters — and so on and so forth.
«BK»: Television advertising is your priority; which other media resources will be used? Are you planning to use any non-standard moves?
TOLSTUNOV: We have large volumes of outdoor advertising. We will make sure that it is noticeable. We will place in Moscow, St. Petersburg and million-plus cities. 13 cities are in the plan so far. There will be cross-promo on radio. About cross-promo it is a little too early to speak now, but our experience proves that large players, like TV channels, usually go for this very willingly. So we even have some choice and this pleases me. We also have one amusing idea right now. We want to organize a BTL action with a romantic slant. «Love — Romance — Thailand» — something in that vein.
«BK»: And whom are you planning to stimulate with this action — cinemas or viewers?
TOLSTUNOV: We will design it so that it is interesting for everyone. We understand that we need to gather millions of viewers, and we cannot send them all to Thailand. But we are now thinking about the form and content, so that it will be attractive both for viewers, and for cinemas, and for our tour-operator partner.
«BK»: And what about your other projects? Take THE RAIDER, for example — how are things with it?
TOLSTUNOV: We have just finished it, and we are now determining the release date. You know, THE RAIDER is shot in the genre of «lawyer drama», this is the sort of legal cinema that is extremely popular in the West and not represented here at all. There is a certain problem with this. We fear that, not being pure entertainment, this film may slightly «underperform». We have seen that the picture came out fairly tight and not boring, therefore we now must adequately forecast its potential, presentation and positioning. Our company lives within the law of strict economic feasibility, and we cannot afford to lose money. Therefore we are now thinking a lot — in what format to release this cinema. By the way, now, and until the end of the first half of next year, there are as many Russian projects as never before. Moreover, all are quite strong. I would very much like these pictures to interest the market and to break the wave of negativity toward domestic cinema that is coming now. And it seems to me that this will work out. So we will release THE RAIDER, probably, in spring-summer.
«BK»: And the last question: what projects do you currently have in production?
TOLSTUNOV: In full confidence regarding their completion, I can only speak about three. The first project is METRO, directed by Anton Megerdichev. This is a disaster film. Casting is now wrapping up and, perhaps, by the beginning of December we will already be able to announce it. This is big production cinema with a budget of around $8—9 million. Filming will begin in April. The film will have a huge number of special effects and computer graphics. We count on its commercial success, because this is absolutely viewer-oriented, genre cinema, and, we hope, it will come out as a quality product. The second project is a picture with the working title THE TEST. Director — Pavel Chukhrai. Retro, 1953. Kazakhstan, Semipalatinsk. The first love of a Moscow boy and a Kazakh girl against the backdrop of the preparation for and conducting of a hydrogen bomb test. This is the kind of piercing, dramatic, but very «human» story that always comes from Chukhrai. And the third project we have launched with director Yana Polyarush (the director of the film VIDRIMASGOR: THE STORY OF MY COSMOS — «BK») — a romantic melodrama called AFRICA. This is a story of the love of two young people: such pure, watercolor, transparent, spring-like. One of the authors of the script is Nana Grinshtein, who wrote PITER FM. These are the projects we are working on right now.
Questions by Boris Babushkin, Artur Chachelov