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Tengri Film Company
Timur
Timur Bekmambetov is a Russian producer & director whose work spans genres and continents. He is also the founder of the production company Bazelevs.
Bekmambetov
Bekmambetov was born in the city of Guryev, Kazakhstan in the former USSR. At the age of 19, he moved to Tashkent, Uzbekistan where in 1987 he graduated from Ostrovsky State University of Theatrical and Fine Arts with a degree in theater and cinema set design.
Between 1992 and 1997, Bekmambetov was one of the directors for Bank Imperial's series of popular World History commercials. In 1994 he founded the Bazelevs Group, an advertising, film production, distribution and marketing company.
The company is now called Bazelevs and has offices in Moscow, Los Angeles and Beijing. In addition to producing Bekmambetov's projects, Bazelevs seeks out, nurtures and employs young talent. Under Bekmambetov's guidance, Bazelevs also explores and creates new film technology, including the latest cinematic technique, «screenlife», an innovative approach that tells stories through social media and internet platforms by way of the devices we use to communicate with each other every day.
In 2017 Bekmambetov directed screenlife thriller Profile starring Valene Kane and Shazad Latif, is about a journalist going undercover to reveal the vast ISIS recruitment network in Western Europe. Profile had its World Premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Panorama Audience Award. In March 2018, after its North American premiere in Austin, Profile won the Audience Award at SXSW. Bekmambetov also produced the acclaimed techno-thriller Searching starring John Cho and Debra Messing, directed by Aneesh Chaganty as his feature debut. Searching won numerous prizes, among them prestigious Alfred P. Sloane Prize and the NEXT Audience Award at Sundance. Released in August 2018, it grossed more than $75M worldwide.
Bazelevs applied screenlife to the docu-series Future History: 1968, a partnership with Buzzfeed and Russian journalists Mikhail Zygar and Karen Shainyan. Future History: 1968 reimagines the most important events of that watershed year as if they played out and were shared via social media on our smartphones. For creating this revolutionary docu-series, along with his producing partners, Timur Bekmambetov has been nominated for the «Producer of the Year» award by GQ magazine.
Bekmambetov's first feature, Peshavar Vals (1994) aka Escape from Afghanistan (U.S. title), was a violent and realistic look at the war between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan. The movie participated in several film festivals, winning a number of awards, including the Grand Prix at the San Remo International Film Festival. In 2002, the film was dubbed in English and released direct-to-video by Roger Corman.
In 2001, Corman invited the upcoming Russian filmmaker to make his English language directing debut with the remake of the 1974 movie The Arena aka Gladiatrix, a feminist version of Gladiator.
Next, Bekmambetov produced and directed Our '90s, an eight-part mini-series for Russian television commissioned by RTR Media.
In 2002, he directed and co-produced the documentary GAZ-Russian Cars about the iconic GAZ car plant and its impact on Russian history.
In 2004, Bekmambetov wrote and directed Night Watch (2004), a popular Russian contemporary fantasy film based on the series of books by renowned author Sergey Lukyanenko. The film was highly successful in Russia, and at the time became Russia's highest-grossing release ever, earning US$16.7 million at the Russian box office. The sequel to Night Watch, Day Watch (2006), was also written and directed by Bekmambetov and again set a new all-time box office record in Russia of US$38.9 million.
In 2004, Bekmambetov wrote and directed Night Watch (2004), a popular Russian contemporary fantasy film based on the series of books by renowned author Sergey Lukyanenko. The film was highly successful in Russia, and at the time became Russia's highest-grossing release ever, earning US$16.7 million at the Russian box office. The sequel to Night Watch, Day Watch (2006), was also written and directed by Bekmambetov and again set a new all-time box office record in Russia of US$38.9 million.
Bekmambetov followed up Day Watch with the smash hit The Irony of Fate: 2 (2007). This sequel to the famous Soviet comedy remains one of the most successful films in Russian history. Once again, it became at that time the most commercially successful movie release of all time in Russia, grossing more than US$55 million in Russian box office.
His Hollywood directorial debut was Universal Studios' Wanted (2008), an action blockbuster about a secret society of assassins, based on a comic-book series of the same name written by Mark Millar and starred Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy. The film, which reached more than US$341 million in worldwide box office, was Universal's then highest ever grossing «R» film.
In 2012, Fox released Bekmambetov's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter starring Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper and Anthony Mackie, produced by Tim Burton.
Bekmambetov has produced a number of other films in the U.S. and Russia, including the animated feature 9; first Russian superhero movie Black Lightning; micro-budget horror Apollo 18; and sci-fi actioner The Darkest Hour. His Moscow Bazelevs office is one of the leading production companies in Russia. In 2017, Bazelevs produced and released the sixth installment of its Christmas franchise Yolki, which became the top-grossing comedy in Russia (a 2018 installment is currently in production).
The romantic comedy Lucky Trouble, produced by Bekmambetov and directed by Leo Gabriadze, was released in 2011 and not only became the most profitable film of that year, but also received nine nominations at the Russian Film Academy Awards. Lucky Trouble was the first Russian film to feature a contemporary Hollywood star, Milla Jovovich, who was joined by Konstantin Khabensky and Ivan Urgant.
His 2015 U.S production, cyber horror Unfriended, ushered in a new era of fear, unfolding over a teenager's computer as she and her friends are stalked by an unseen figure seeking vengeance. The film grossed more than 185 times its original budget and marked Bazelev's first foray into screen life.
In 2016, Bekmambetov directed the historic action drama Ben-Hur, based on Lew Wallace's timeless novel, starring Jack Huston as the lead along with an international cast of Morgan Freeman, Toby Kebbell, Nazanin Boniadi, Rodrigo Santoro, Sofia Black D'Elia, Ayelet Zurer, Moises Arias and Pilou Asbaek. Written by Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley and Keith Clarke, it was produced by Sean Daniel, Mark Burnett, Joni Levin and Duncan Henderson. Executive producers were Roma Downey, Keith Clarke, John Ridley and Jason Brown. The film was shot on location in Rome and Matera, Italy. MGM financed and Paramount released the film.
In 2016, Bekmambetov also produced the revolutionary first-person feature Hardcore Henry with Sharlto Copley, Haley Bennett and Tim Roth, directed by Ilya Naishuller, that won the People's Choice Award at Toronto International Film Festival and was released by STX stateside.
In 2019, Timur produced highly successful vertical series for Snapchat, called Dead of Night, reimagining what a zombie apocalypse will look like, if told through a phone of a teenager caught in the middle of it.
In October 2019 historic drama, — The Current War with Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Tom Holland and Nicholas Hoult, produced by Timur Bekmambetov got theatrically released worldwide.
Scheduled for 2021 release is the new movie, — V2 directed by Bekmambetov. Once again he redefines the genre of war films, by telling an incredible World War II story in impressive Imax and more innovative vertical format.