Like father, like son. Fyodor Bondarchuk announced yesterday that he iscompleting his late dad's Sergei Bondarchuk's unfinished epic film And QuietFlows The Don.''

Actor-director Sergei Bondarchuk, one of the legendary figures inpost-war Soviet cinema, originally shot And Quiet Flows The Don in 1992, twoyears before his death.

An English-language adaptation of Mikhail Sholokov's classic novel, itboasted an international cast including Rupert Eeverett and Ben Gazarra. Aftershooting was completed, the Italian producer went bankrupt and the film'svisual materials were held by the Italian bank that had guaranteed the project.''

In 2004, Russia's Channel 1 bought back the material. Fyodor Bondarchukis now editing the footage into a seven-part TV miniseries that will screenlater this year.''

Meanwhile, Fyodor Bondarchuk, whose new Afghan-set war film 9th Companyscreens in Cannes, has announced he is to direct and produce Inhabited Island, a $15 milliondrama due to shoot in the autumn.

Eduard Volodarsky is writing the script based on the novel by Russianfantasists Arkady and Boris Strugatsky about a young terrestrial on a distantplanet that has survived a nuclear war.

The film's producers are 9th Company's Sergei Melkumov andAlexander Rodnyansky along with Dmitry Rudovsky and the director of photographyis Maxim Osadchy.