"It was a mutually beneficial, synergistic process," said the film's director.
The creation of the film based on the novel by Evgeny Vodolazkin became a work of over two years for director Yegor Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky, which included dozens of script revisions, two shooting periods, and three editing versions.
The presentation of the film 'Aviator' took place in Moscow as part of the forum-festival 'Russian Creative Week', and the adaptation will be released in Russian theaters on November 20.
— 'Aviator' is one of the most ambitious projects, not only due to the popularity of the source material but also because of the involvement of the most sought-after actors in Russia. How long did the work on 'Aviator' take?
— The work took more than two years. This period included careful rewriting of the script — we had several dozen revisions. There were also two shooting sessions, summer and winter, and three editing versions with subsequent corrections. The music took a long time to write, Maxim Fadeev worked on it quite painstakingly. So overall — a little over two years, which is considerable for a feature film.
It was certainly difficult to gather all the actors in one shooting schedule. But as soon as that was achieved, the process went quite smoothly.
— How did the casting go? Did you initially know who would play the lead roles?
— We knew and really hoped for Konstantin Khabensky. We met and talked, and in the end, he agreed. Moreover, his name appeared in the project before mine.
There was a very serious casting for the other roles. For example, we searched for a long time for an actor for the role of Platonov, and I am very glad that Alexander Gorbatov found the strength to come for auditions about twenty times — we tested him with different actresses.
Of course, it was challenging to find an actress for the lead role, which was ultimately played by Daria Kukarskikh. We needed a 22-year-old star who could look both 18 and 30 years old while being a good actress. The casting for female roles lasted a couple of months.
I am very happy that such wonderful artists as Ilya Korobko, Evgeny Stychkin, Natalia Vdovina, Igor Mirkurbanov, Anton Shagin, Irina Pegova, Valery Barinov, Sergey Barkovsky, Alexey Kravchenko agreed to work with me. They really liked the script we gave them to read, for which I am immensely grateful.
— The plot of the story is based on the use of cryotechnology. How were the ice decorations prepared?
— We had a very skilled and talented production designer Mukhtar Mirzakeev, who worked on large projects. To be honest, I don’t know how it was done: I would come in, and everything was ready. If I had known, I would probably have been a decorator myself.
— How did your collaboration with Evgeny Vodolazkin unfold? What influence did he have on the final vision of the film?
— 'Aviator' is an adaptation, albeit a loose one, so Vodolazkin had a significant influence on the film. But the film is a separate artistic work. There is Tolstoy's 'War and Peace', and there is Bondarchuk's 'War and Peace' — both are already classics.
Vodolazkin advised us — me and Miroslav Stankovich, with whom we adapted the script — and we listened to him carefully. But we must give him credit: he listened to us very attentively as well. It was a mutually beneficial, synergistic process.
In addition, our producer Sergey Katychev, who wanted to realize this project two to three years before I arrived, also made an invaluable creative contribution: to the script, filming, post-production, and music composition. He is a very bold, positively risky person who sees things through to the end.
— Yuri Arabov, who passed away in 2023, is also credited as a screenwriter for the project. What part did he contribute to the project?
— Arabov is a classic, a great screenwriter. I read his script with great interest, but every artist has their own vision. I realized that I wanted to focus on other moments of the novel that were personally important to me. Therefore, a rather deep revision was required, which I carried out together with Miroslav Stankovich — a talented, hardworking person with whom I feel very comfortable working.
