Russia's $30m epic Stalingrad goes 3D

Art Pictures’ Dmitry Rudovsky, CEO, Sales and Acquisitions, has confirmed in Cannes that Fedor Bondarchuk’s forthcoming $30 million epic Stalingrad will now shoot in 3D.

Art Pictures is in talks with Vincent Pace (Avatar) to oversee the 3D camera system that Stalingrad will use. Bondarchuk will make Stalingrad once he finishes work on The Winter Queen.

Stalingrad promises to be a full-blown epic. Rudovsky revealed that a major US studio is poised to co-produce the film through its Russian production arm.

Art Pictures has also been in talks with Til Schweiger about the German star boarding the project. Whether or not Schweiger takes a role, Rudovsky said that Schweiger’s company Barefoot Films is interested in coming aboard as German coproducer.

Art Pictures is billing the film as Russia’s first 3D film. Andrei Konchalovsky’s The Nutcracker (handled by Central Partnership) is also now in a 3D version.

Here in the market, Art Pictures is presenting a newly cut, shortened version of Bondarchuk’s $36 million sci-fi saga, The Inhabited Island.

“It’s different from the version that we presented at AFM,” Rudovsky said of the original two and a half hour international cut of the film presented in Santa Monica. The film being presented to buyers here in Cannes is around the two hour mark.