Marina Antunes [Celluloid 11.11.09] movie news thriller



It seems like forever ago (last November to be exact) since we last heard any news on the Paul Verhoeven directed and Milla Jovovich starring project The Winter Queen. The film, based on Boris Akunin’s novel, is set in 1876 and tells the story of a young investigator with the Moscow police who, in the midst of solving a suicide of a university student, instead finds himself in the middle of an international conspiracy.

The project seemed to be going along at a good pace when production was stalled due to Jovovich’s pregnancy. In a later interview, the actress revealed that Verhoeven was moving onto other projects which left The Winter Queen dead in the water before production even started. That however, seems to have changed.


News now is that the project is going full speed ahead with shooting scheduled to start in April. But who has taken over for Verhoeven? Why, none other than Fyodor Bondarchuk, the man behind Inhabited Island, a film we’ve talked about in the past (here and here).

It’s good to see the project moving ahead and it’ll be interesting to see how Bondarchuk’s previous work (he certainly has his own style) translates into this story. I expect we’re in for a treat!

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Anonymous (3 years ago) Reply

Terrible news. Bondarchuk is awful director that has no understanding of contemporary cinema. Get your expectation extremely low, and even that will be too high.

moviebuff (1 year ago) Reply

Definitely not terrible, but great news. The guy is a creative director, which has me excited for this movie. I'm looking forward to the rapid development of this one.

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