Crave Online: Did you know this graphic novel?

Timur Bekmambetov: Before the movie? No, no, no.

Crave Online: It’s very different from the graphic novel.

Timur Bekmambetov: Different, you mean different mythology?

Crave Online: Yes, why did you change it?

Timur Bekmambetov: Because I don’t think it’s good for millions of people to see a movie about just killing people just for fun.

Crave Online: When you were presented the project at first, was the super villain aspect still in it?

Timur Bekmambetov: No.

Crave Online: So the super villain aspect has already been taken out.

Timur Bekmambetov: Before. People were smart. This idea was good for the comic book but it doesn’t work for a movie.

Crave Online: How does the mythology in this film compare to how you approached it in Day Watch and Night Watch?

Timur Bekmambetov: It’s a different mythos, but they have a similar rules. Not rules, it’s a similar idea because there is a purpose for everything, and it’s the same as Night Watch and Day Watch. We live an ordinary life and we don’t know what’s happening next to us, and it’s very intriguing for people, because everybody thinks that there is something important happening next to us, we don’t know about it; conspiracy theory.

Crave Online: It also combines a darkness with a sense of humor.

Timur Bekmambetov: It’s the same, it’s my language, it’s how I see things and I was surprised how consistent this project was with my previous movie, I was surprised myself. I [thought] it was going to be very different when I made it, and then suddenly when I saw the movie I found that it’s very, very consistent.

Crave Online: Is this the next level of John Woo and The Matrix style?

Timur Bekmambetov: No, it’s just different, it’s very different because it’s drama driven. Drama drives the action entertainment. It’s an ancient Greek tragedy dressed as an action movie.

Crave Online: Did you feel like you were creating a new visual language though?

Timur Bekmambetov: I think every director creates a new visual language because every director’s different. And if I tried to repeat somebody it’ll be unsuccessful because I cannot do something that other people do.

Crave Online: Were you a fan of The Matrix?

Timur Bekmambetov: The first Matrix. Yes.

Crave Online: Would you mind if this was compared to it?

Timur Bekmambetov: It’s another type of food. It’s a different meal. It’s not the same. There’s no sense of humor in The Matrix at all. It’s very serious. It’s interesting. It’s totally inhuman. We are very funny.

Crave Online: When you were a little child, did you like to draw? How did you get this visual thing in your head?

Timur Bekmambetov: Yes, I studied as a painter for seven years, it was who I was, but I didn’t find a reason why I had to be a painter because painters are painting something and nobody really needs it, because then it’s a business of the gallerias and selling art, but I didn’t understand why I had to do this. You don’t have an audience, and I like the movie business because you have an audience. Like this July, in a week I will understand.

Crave Online: James is unusual casting. Did you see him in a movie where you thought he could be an assassin?

Timur Bekmambetov: First of all it was very important to find an actor who’d be very unpredictable for this role, because to create his journey, to create this arc from the ordinary man to the super-assassin, dangerous and warrior fighter, it was important to have somebody who would be unpredictable. And second element was the actor has to feel the tone of the comic book, because what was unique for me. This comic book had a very unique tone, its irony, its smartness, it’s a little bit smarter than other comic books, except the great character in Iron Man. He’s a great character, and it’s kind of the same direction. What’s happening in comic books now, the hero becomes more dramatic, more real, and James grew up in the same city as Mark Millar, the writer who created this comic book. He’s from Glasgow. I found that they have the same sensibility and that was very important because I was trying to protect the original source, to make it as close as possible to the original character, even if it’s visually different and it looks different, and there are different scenes, but tonally it’s the same.

Crave Online: You end on a more comedic note than big action. Why did you make that choice?

Timur Bekmambetov: I really believe that a movie without message doesn’t work. I’ve seen many movies now with no messages, and there was no reason why I spent two hours and paid money, and why I need it, like a circus. But I really believe that movies are so powerful, it’s so influential, it needs a message, it needs something. What do you want to tell people, and what they can take with them in their life, or they will come back and see it again to understand better, to rethink. I think it’s very important, this movie is a case, we had it, and it was very important for me. The same as Night Watch and Day Watch, the same as 300 for example. It was a big event because there was a message. You can agree with that or not, it’s just a different question, but it’s something that you can think about later, and we were lucky that we had this.

Crave Online: People are buzzing about the nude scene Angelina does. Are you surprised that that’s such a big deal, because you’re not the first filmmaker to shoot Angelina in a nude scene?

Timur Bekmambetov: It was part of the story, I didn’t have an idea just okay, now we have to shoot Angelina naked. No, it was part of the story, very important especially because the next scene she’s beating Wesley, and it’s a good set up for the next scene.

Crave Online: Was it a big deal for her to do that?

Timur Bekmambetov: No, she likes to do this. She has a beautiful body and she likes to do this.

Crave Online: How challenging was it to shoot the train sequence on stage against a green screen with your actors?

Timur Bekmambetov: Oh they’re very professional, Angelina and James. In an actors’ school I’m sure they had these classes where you have to imagine yourself in a forest and then there are mosquitoes. It’s what they like. They’re actors. It’s in their nature to imagine the world around them and to try to be real in this world.

Crave Online: Was the whole train sequence green screen?

Timur Bekmambetov: In this scene with the train we built a huge carriage on a gimbal and there were like a hundred people in a laundry machine.

Crave Online: Was anyone hurt?

Timur Bekmambetov: James was a little bit. It was quite good organization and everything worked. But every time when I saw this I was scared something has to happen because it’s huge, a whole train on a revolving gimbal machine.

Crave Online: What was the biggest challenge for you?

Timur Bekmambetov: To tell the story. The biggest challenge every time is to tell the story in an interesting and entertaining [way]. I mean all these visual effects and special effects, it’s what I’ve done all my life.

Crave Online: This was originally scheduled to come out in March. What changed in the extra months you had to work on it?

Timur Bekmambetov: First of all the studio understood that the movie is bigger than a March or April movie. It’s just bigger. It’s a big event and I really appreciate their decision to move it because they gave me another few months to work and also they gave me the visibility to talk to a lot of people this summer. And I think it will be very interesting [to see] what will happen in 10 days because if an audience will enjoy this movie, we will be in a different world because this kind of movie is never released in the summer. It’s a brave decision and I think it will be successful.

Crave Online: What’s going to be on the DVD?

Timur Bekmambetov: The same [film]. I didn’t find any deleted scenes. Everything we shot is in the movie.

Crave Online: Have you done the Blu-Ray version of the movie yet?

Timur Bekmambetov: What’s the difference?

Crave Online: The high definition version.

Timur Bekmambetov: What’s the difference?

Crave Online: High definition for home theaters.

Timur Bekmambetov: They will do this but it’s just technically. What we did we did DI, digital negative which is the quality of the film projector. It’s 4K or something. And Blu-Ray I think they will transfer and the sound is Dolby surround. I think it’s just a technical process. I never think about it. I know what we need for Night Watch, for Day Watch in Russia. There was a scene in Day Watch about the integration of the dark ones and we shot it in real time for three hours, two hours I think. It was a two-hour process and we started with 200 extras. It was not extras. It was real people, famous people in Russia. We put them in one room and there were 20 cameras shooting from different angles and we shot the whole scene with 20 cameras in real time with actors playing at the same time like in the theater. And then we cut this scene and there were many cameras. On the DVD we released in Russia, I don’t know how it is here, we released DVD where you can switch cameras when they’re watching from different angles, what’s happening there. Because DVD supports 9 channels or something.

Crave Online: The editing was important to the film too. Did you sit right there with your editor?

Timur Bekmambetov: Yes. He’s a great editor.

Crave Online: Are you looking over his shoulder?

Timur Bekmambetov: No. I’m editing it myself usually but in this case I invited the person who worked with me on Night Watch here because when I made an American version of Night Watch, Fox Searchlight invited him to help me. His name is David Brenner. He’s won two Oscars, I think. He’s a very good editor. It was three years ago when I worked with him and I found that he says things similarly. He’s like me. I invited him. And also we worked together and it was very interesting to do things together because you need an audience. I believe the good editor wants to entertain the person sitting behind him because it’s very good when you’re trying to surprise each other and we worked like a team trying to entertain each other. I’m giving an idea and he’s saying, “Oh that’s great.” It was good.

Crave Online: What’s you biggest fear?

Timur Bekmambetov: My biggest fear is to achieve everything. Then what?