By Lyuba Pronina | Staff Writer 8/12/04
Zhukovsky Airfield, Moscow Region - Standing on the tarmac of an idle
airfield outside Moscow, a disillusioned ex-CIA agent orders a Russian Air Force
pilot to attack an unidentified target with his stealth Sukhoi fighter.
"I am afraid I have something else for you to do. Your target is
quadrate 180-100 moving east," says the white-haired former agent, dressed
in black and wearing dark sunglasses.
The pilot doesn't know it yet, but the target is Air Force One and the U.S.
president. But he does know that his family will be killed if he doesn't obey.
The former agent is Malcolm McDowell, the actor who made a name for himself
in "A Clockwork Orange" and played the lascivious emperor in
"Caligula." The pilot is Valery Nikolayev, who starred opposite Val
Kilmer as the malicious Ilya Tretiak in "The Saint." They were on
location at the Zhukovsky Airfield this week filming a Russian action movie
meant to showcase the Sukhoi fighter jet in all its glory.
"This is a publicity film about Sukhoi - propaganda about Russian
weapons, technology and the people who make them," said the film's producer
and co-screenwriter, Oleg Kapanets.
The $10 million budget for the movie, with the working title "Su-XX,"
is being bankrolled by Sukhoi and several Russian commercial banks. "Su-XX"
will premiere in Russian theaters on May 9, 2005, to coincide with the 60th
anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany.
The movie's plot is simple: Russian Air Force pilot Boris Korin, acting under
orders from rogue former agent Murdoch, hijacks a Sukhoi fighter at a Moscow air
show in 2005. He is sidelined before the strike on Air Force One is supposed to
begin, and his crewmate, Alexei Kedrov (Alexander Yefimov), takes matters into
his own hands. Needless to say, the U.S. president lives and the Sukhoi ends back in Russia
without a scratch.
"Does that sound familiar?" McDowell said, taking a break from
shooting Monday. "All the movies that we make are taken from the headlines. Obviously
it's fiction, but God knows! I suppose it could be real."
Fans of the Sukhoi will notice fiction in the film's depiction of the jet.
The stealth capabilities assigned to the plane will only be a reality when
Sukhoi rolls out its fifth-generation fighter in 2010. Two planes were used on
the film set, an Su-27UB and an Su-35.
"Su-XX" director Vasily Chiginsky promised more eye-dazzling action
than audiences are used to seeing in Russian films. "There will be a lot of computer graphics, but there will be a lot of
shooting in the air as well when the plane performs stunts," Chiginsky
said. The film also stars Hollywood actors Rutger Hauer and Armand Assante.
Sukhoi deputy general director Vadim Razumovsky said Sukhoi considers the
film part of its duty to provide "patriotic education" to young
people. "It is one of our strategic goals to support public interest in
aviation, especially among young people," he said by telephone. He would not say how much Sukhoi contributed to "Su-XX."
The government, which is pushing for movies and television series that boost
the prestige of the armed forces, did not reply to repeated requests to help
finance the film, Kapanets said. Still, the production company behind the project is named Kremlin Films.
Kapanets insisted that the company has no relationship to the Kremlin or the
government. "It's a beautiful name. I like it," he said.
"Su-XX" pairs McDowell with a Russian director for the second time in
his 40-year career.
McDowell played a schizophrenic patient in a Russian hospital who is convinced
that he is Yakov Yurovsky, the man who executed Tsar Nicholas II and the royal
family during the Revolution, in director Karen Shakhnazarov's 1990 film
"Assassin of the Tsar."
Asked how "Su-XX" compared to "Top Gun," the paragon of
fighter-jet movies, McDowell said: "It is so different. This is much more
character-driven. 'Top Gun' was a wonderful film and, of course, had a lot of
special effects. A lot of money was spent on it, [and it had] great music. This
is very different."
Still, Kapanets, who previously produced the 2002 film "Red
Serpent," starring Roy Scheider, is confident that "Su-XX" will
be a hit. "We will rip the Russian box office, and we will show it in every
country where people have TV sets," he said.
© 2004 MT
Archived w/o permission 2004-08 by Alex D. Thrawn for www.MalcolmMcDowell.net