Talk about the question on everyone’s mind this holiday season! Deadline Kaluga reports that Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov will answer that very question – sort of, in a way, considering he’s already answered it twice already. Bekmambetov is now set to team up with Chinese filmmaker Eva Jin to launch a Russian and Chinese remake of Russia’s own wildly popular anthology film, Yolki. Bekmambetov previously directed his own segments in both Yolki (also know as the more appropriate Six Degrees of Separation) and its very successful sequel, Yolki 2. Yolki 2 was recently a big winner in its native Russia, pulling in a stunning $7.8m gross over its opening weekend. The original Yolki was “Russia’s most successful local movie in the past three years.”
The first film “tells the stories of eight different Russians – from eight different time zones – and how their destinies intersect one New Years Eve.” The new version will “be framed around the Chinese New Year. There will be eight stories connected by a young orphan girl who must deliver a message to the President and whose only hope is to use the theory of ‘six degrees of separation’ – that all people on Earth, from the lowliest migrant worker to government leaders, are connected by six handshakes.” Gross. But also somewhat sweet.
Bekmambetov and Jin are each set to direct one of the different vignettes of the film. Of course, the major question is not who will write or direct the other sections of the film, but if it will be at all possible for Bekmambetov and company to cast known talent that has not already starred in either Valentine’s Day or New Year’s Eve? A true feat for any director.
An anthology production such as this brings to mind films like Paris, I Love You or New York, I Love You much more than either Valentine’s Day or New Year’s Eve, which can only be a good thing. With projects like Garry Marshall’s dismal holidays-on-crack films, typically even the most standoffish audiences will find one or two storylines to follow and enjoy, but with an omnibus film, viewers can find both plots and individuals directors that appeal to their individual tastes. Something to celebrate, surely.
The film is aiming for a 2013 release.