Yekaterina Andreeva, in the studio: The admirers of Boris Akunin’s talent soon will meet their favorite detective Erast Fandorin again. Though not on the pages of a book, but on the screen. The shooting of “The State Councilor” by Akunin is in full swing. Oleg Menshikov plays Fandorin, and Nikita Mikhalkov – Duke Pozharsky. And both actors issue quite a difficult challenges. Menshikov tries to disclose what kind of a person is Erast Fandorin, and Mikhalkov aims at presenting Pozharsky not as an ordinary “bad guy”, but drawing a picture of a rather controversial character. It should be interesting. Olga Mezhennaya watched the process.

Olga Mezhennaya: Moscow. The Red Square. Assistant director gives instructions to the participants of crowd scenes. Ladies and gentlemen dressed in 19th-century clothes take their positions. The make-up is being fixed. It is cold. The wind blows. Glue doesn’t hold beards and mustache. Non-cinematographic ladies in orange vests – only between the takes – clean up the snow from the cube of the Red Square.
Oleg Menshikov plays Fandorin in this another cinema story by Akunin. The title of the story is “The State Councilor”. At first the film was to be directed by Nikita Mikhalkov, later – by Oleg Menshikov. For Menshikov “The State Councilor” could be a film-directing debut. But it didn’t. With the participation of the novel’s author it was decided that the film will be directed by Filipp Yankovsky. Here he is with a walkie-talkie. Next to him is a camera-man Vladimir Opeliants. Nikita Mikhlakov in this “State Councilor” is Duke Pozharsky and one of the producers, and Oleg Menshikov is a main character.
The middle of the shooting process. But, as Menshikov says, it is still a question what is Fandorin: our Sherlock Holmes, our James Bond, or something else.

Oleg Menshikov: James Bond? I don’t know, but they say so for some reason… But I don’t think so. Let him be Russian Fandorin.
Olga Mezhennaya: And what is Russian Fandorin?
Oleg Menshikov: This is what I don’t know still. This is what needs to be disclosed…

Olga Mezhennaya: Another shooting on location – by the Temiryazev Academy. Students make use of the time between classes – take autographs and watch the film-making process. Mashkov goes to get acquainted with horses; Khabensky warms up his feet in valenki while the crew is getting prepared to work. They start. A cruel scene – lots of firing. A dapple-grey Ruby didn’t have time to realize what was happening, but the actors are already laying down arms, as it should be.
Boris Akunin wrote the screenplay himself. He took part in the casting for the parts of Fandorin and Pozharsky, and presented the director, as people say, with another book about Fandorin – “The Diamond Chariot”. But so far, obviously, the crew is occupied just with “The State Councilor”.
Neskuchny Gardens. Mikhalkov and Menshikov are on the set. Two Mikhalkov’s daughters watch their father work. All the rest watch both actors. Nikita Mikhalkov added a lot in his part of Duke Pozharsky, together with Akunin, already when he was going to direct the film himself – for, not to play simply a “bad guy” and simply an “evildoer”, as he says. Producer Mikhalkov speaks a lot about how the novel is being screened. The result should be a full-length film and four TV-series of “The State Councilor” for Channel 1.

Nikita Mikhalkov: It won’t be like “the cuts that didn’t fit in the film will make a series”. No. There will be scenes, which are not included in the script we are following for the film.

The source of the photos – the official site of Channel 1