Timur Nuruakhitovich Bekmambetov is a Kazakh director, producer and
screenwriter who has worked on films, music videos and commercials. He is best
known for the film Night Watch and its sequel Day Watch, and the American films
Wanted and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Early life Bekmambetov was born on 25 June 1961, in
the city of Guryev. At the age of 19, he moved to Tashkent, Uzbek SSR to study at
the Alexander Ostrovsky Theatrical and Artistic Institute, from which he
graduated in 1987 with a degree in theater and cinema set design. It was
during this period that Bekmambetov served in the Soviet Army, which
inspired him to write Peshavar Waltz. Film and television career
Between 1992 and 1997, Bekmambetov was one of the directors of Bank Imperial's
award-winning popular World History commercials. In 1994, he founded
Bazelevs Group, an advertising and film production, distribution and marketing
company. Bekmambetov's first feature, Peshavar
Waltz, was a violent and realistic look at the war between the USSR and
Afghanistan. The film was dubbed in English as Escape from Afghanistan and
released direct-to-video by Roger Corman in 2002. Bekmambetov next produced and
directed an eight-part miniseries for television entitled Our '90s.
Bekmambetov then returned to directing features, with the Roger Corman-produced
The Arena, which starred Karen McDougal and Lisa Dergan. The film was a remake
of the 1974 film of the same name. In 2002, Bekmambetov directed and
co-produced the film GAZ-Russian Cars. In 2004, Bekmambetov wrote and directed
Night Watch, a popular Russian fantasy film based on the book by Sergey
Lukyanenko. The film was extremely successful in Russia, and at the time
became its highest-grossing release ever, making US$16.7 million in Russia
alone, more than The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The sequel
to Night Watch, Day Watch, was likewise written and directed by Bekmambetov. The
two films attracted the attention of Fox Searchlight Pictures, which paid $4
million to acquire worldwide distribution rights.
Bekmambetov followed up Day Watch with the The Irony of Fate 2. This sequel to
the famous Soviet film The Irony of Fate is one of the most successful in Russian
history, second only to Avatar in total box office receipts.
Bekmambetov's Hollywood directorial debut, Wanted, an action blockbuster
about a secret society of assassins, was based on a comic-book miniseries of the
same name created by Mark Millar and J. G. Jones.
Bekmambetov has also produced a number of films in the U.S. and Russia. 9, the
story of a rag doll in a post-apocalyptic world, was directed by
Shane Acker and produced by Bekmambetov, Tim Burton and Jim Lemley. Bekmambetov
also produced the action movie Black Lightning, the first Russian-language
superhero film, with Universal Pictures. In 2010, Bekmambetov produced and was
one of the directors of Yolki a.k.a. "The Six Degrees to Celebration" which
became the second highest-grossing Russian movie in Russian box office
history. In February 2011 Bazelevs released the Bekmambetov-produced
Vykrutasy starring Milla Jovovich and Konstantin Khabensky.
In 2011, Bekmambetov produced Apollo 18, along with The Weinstein Company, a
found footage science fiction thriller, and The Darkest Hour, a science fiction
film set in Moscow and produced by New Regency.
In 2012, Bekmambetov directed and produced the live action adaption of the
Seth Grahame-Smith novel Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, also produced
by Tim Burton and Jim Lemley. He was awarded the International Filmmaker of
the Year award in 2012 by the National Association of Theatre Owners.
In 2013, Variety named Bekmambetov one of the most commercially successful
Russian directors of the decade. He was placed on top of the list with Fedor
Bondarchuk, Sarik Andreasyan, Pyotr Buslov and Marius Weisberg.
Filmography See also
International Astana Action Film Festival
Music videos Yulia Chicherina – Tu-lu-la
Yulia Chicherina – Zhara Linkin Park – Powerless
References External links
Portrait of Timur Bekmambetov Timur Bekmambetov at the Internet Movie
Database