Alexander Rodnyansky: Last News

Christopher Vourlias A Moscow court has ordered the arrest of Oscar-nominated film producer Alexander Rodnyansky and theater director Ivan Vyrypaev, accusing the two of “spreading false information” about Russia’s war in Ukraine. According to the Associated Press, both men — who each reside outside Russia — will be placed in custody once they are either detained by Russian authorities or extradited from abroad. A source close to Rodnyansky said the producer is currently in Cannes, but he could not immediately be reached for comment. Rodnyansky currently splits his time between Ukraine, Europe and L.A., where his production shingle AR Content is based. The Kyiv-born producer, who spent nearly three decades living and working in Russia, fled the country just days after its invasion of Ukraine, after receiving a tip that his outspoken criticism of the war had landed him in the Kremlin’s crosshairs.

EXCLUSIVE: Pascal Caucheteux’s Why Not Productions is joining Alexander Rodnyansky’s AR Content to produce Beanpole helmer Kantemir Balagov’s first English-language film Butterfly Jam. Goodfellas is set to launch sales on the project in Cannes next week. 

EXCLUSIVE: Goodfellas has boarded upcoming war crime drama Occupation from Ukrainian writer-director Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi (The Tribe). The project, which will be produced by Loveless and Leviathan producer Alexander Rodnyansky alongside Nick Shumaker for Anonymous Content, is being launched to buyers in Cannes this month with Goodfellas repping international sales rights and Anonymous Content and CAA Media Finance co-repping North American rights. 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor U.K. based sales and distribution outfit Blue Finch Films has boarded worldwide rights to thriller “Steppenwolf” from writer-director Adilkhan Yerzhanov, whose credits include the Cannes selected titles “The Owners” and “The Gentle Indifference of the World.” The film will have its world premiere at next month’s International Film Festival Rotterdam as part of the Big Screen Competition. “Steppenwolf” is a brutal story of an unlikely duo who will stop at nothing to find what they are looking for.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired North American rights to “Once Within a Time” from Godfrey Reggio, the experimental filmmaker behind the cult masterpiece “Koyaanisqatsi.” The indie studio will release “Once Within a Time” theatrically in the fall of 2023, following its premiere as part of The Museum of Modern Art’s film series “Total Cinema of Sight and Sound: Godfrey Reggio and Philip Glass,” which runs Sept. 26 – Oct. 4.  The movie is co-directed by Jon Kane, with original music is composed by Philip Glass with additional music and vocals by Sussan Deyhim. Glass, a legendary experimental composer, first worked with Reggio on “Koyaanisqatsi,” which was “presented” by Francis Ford Coppola in 1982. Reggio and Glass have collaborated on seven films over the last four decades, including “Visitors,” “Evidence,” and “Anima Mundi.”

A Russian court has issued a warrant for the arrest of prominent international film producer Alexander Rodnyansky as well as theater director Ivan Vyrypaev for “spreading false information about the war” in Ukraine.

EXCLUSIVE: The Killing and Suicide Squad alum Joel Kinnaman is set to star in AR Content’s adaptation of John Nixon’s Debriefing the President. Kinnaman will star as former CIA analyst Nixon who wrote the non-fiction book about his experience of being the first American to identify and interrogate Saddam Hussein following his 2003 capture.

EXCLUSIVE: Anonymous Content, Alexander Rodnyansky’s AR Content and The Atlantic have secured rights to journalist Peter Pomerantsev’s article for The Atlantic ‘We Can Only Be Enemies’ and will adapt it for film.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Alexander Rodnyansky, the producer of Oscar nominated films “Leviathan” and “Loveless,” has boarded the next project from Kazakh director Adilkhan Yerzhanov (pictured), whose film “Goliath” has its world premiere at Venice Film Festival on Thursday in the Horizons Extra section. The new project, “Nosorog,” tells a contemporary story of Tamara, a distraught woman on a desperate search for her missing son in a small town consumed by violent riots. To help get her son back, she hires a shady detective, Brayuk, with unexpected consequences. Rodnyansky joins producers Aliya Mendygozhina and Olga Khlasheva on the project, which is a co-production between the State Center of Support of the National Cinema of Kazakhstan and Kazakh film company Golden Man Media.

Christopher Vourlias Two-time Academy Award-nominated producer Alexander Rodnyansky (“Leviathan,” “Loveless”) is developing a new series that charts the rise of Vladimir Putin in what the producer describes as “the actual, horrifying story of how the man who changed the world got the power to do so.”Produced by Rodnyansky’s L.A.-based production shingle AR Content, “All the Kremlin’s Men” is based on the bestseller by acclaimed reporter Mikhail Zygar, the former editor-in-chief of Russian independent station TV Rain, which was banned and disbanded in the first week of the war in Ukraine. The book is based on an extraordinary series of interviews with Putin’s inner circle.The series will tell the story of how an unassuming ex-KGB officer became one of the most feared politicians in the world, drawing back the curtain on what goes on behind the Kremlin’s walls and revealing how Putin and his inner circle operate.

Christopher Vourlias On March 15, less than three weeks removed from his country’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu drafted a letter to the Minister of Culture demanding the film and TV work of Ukrainian actor-turned-wartime-President Volodymyr Zelensky be “removed from the cultural agenda of the Russian Federation,” citing efforts to rally the public behind President Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression.Also mentioned in his complaint: two-time Oscar nominee Alexander Rodnyansky (“Leviathan,” “Loveless”), the Kyiv-born producer who has called Russia home for two decades.Rodnyansky had already fled the country. On March 1, he was tipped off by a friend that his opposition to the Ukraine war had landed him in the government’s crosshairs.

Christopher Vourlias As the war in Ukraine approaches a grim, three-month mile marker, and the Russian military continues its relentless onslaught, the harsh crackdown on domestic opposition by the Putin regime has left a beleaguered film industry pondering its next steps. Many Russian filmmakers fear they’ll have no choice but to toe the party line, or to flee a country that is increasingly being shut out of the international community.Two-time Oscar nominee Alexander Rodnyansky (“Leviathan,” “Loveless”), the Kyiv-born producer who has called Russia home for nearly three decades, left Moscow on March 1 after being tipped off that his opposition to the war had landed him in the government’s crosshairs.

Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has called for the country to ban all the work of Ukraine-born super-producer Alexander Rodnyansky as well as any film and TV work of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to Russian news site The Insider.

Billionaire soccer club owner Roman Abramovich is reportedly assisting with peace efforts in Ukraine.

Naman Ramachandran Russian-Israeli billionaire Roman Abramovich, owner of soccer club Chelsea FC, is attempting to broker peace between warring nations Ukraine and Russia, according to a spokesperson.“I can confirm that Roman Abramovich was contacted by the Ukrainian side for support in achieving a peaceful resolution, and that he has been trying to help ever since,” a spokesperson for Abramovich told the PA news agency on Monday. “Considering what is at stake, we would ask for your understanding as to why we have not commented on neither the situation as such nor his involvement.”Ukraine-born Russia-based Oscar-nominated producer Alexander Rodnyansky (“Leviathan,” “Loveless”), who is deeply affected by the crisis, has confirmed this development to Variety.

Christopher Vourlias Two-time Oscar-nominated producer Alexander Rodnyansky (“Leviathan,” “Loveless”) said he felt “unbearably ashamed” and “incredibly, deeply sad” when his son called from Kyiv on Thursday with news that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had begun.“Of course, I realized before that the situation might go this way, but I still couldn’t believe that missiles are exploding in Kyiv,” Rodnyansky told Variety by email. “I couldn’t imagine that Kyiv, my native town, where my relatives, friends and colleagues live, where my parents and grandparents are buried, will be struck by missiles of the country where I have been living and working for the last 20 years, together with my family and friends.” The Moscow-based producer was born in the Ukrainian capital, which was under siege by Russian troops on Friday.

Christopher Vourlias Fox Entertainment has acquired U.S. rights to “Khan: The Series,” from Oscar-nominated producer Alexander Rodnyansky’s AR Content, Variety can reveal.Currently in development, the epic action series is based on the best-selling book “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World” by Jack Weatherford, and will focus on the largest contiguous empire in human history and its iconic creator.Writer and executive producer Chris Collins will serve as showrunner, with Sergei Bodrov tapped to direct and executive produce.

EXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed Academy Award-nominated and Primetime Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy (Downfall: The Case Against Boeing, Last Days in Vietnam) for worldwide representation in all areas.

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy-Award-winning director and cinematographer Andrij Parekh (Succession, Watchman) is set to direct Red Rainbow, a dramedy series produced by Alexander Rodnyansky via his AR Content banner.

Kira Kovalenko’s feature Unclenching the Fists was initially inspired by a line in William Faulkner’s novel Intruder in the Dust. Speaking at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International awards-season event, the Russian director said she thought a lot about Faulkner’s line, “While some people can endure slavery, nobody can stand freedom,” when she began co-writing her sophomore film, which is now Russia’s submission into this year’s International Feature Oscar race.

Unclenching the Fists, the drama directed by Kira Kovalenko that won the grand prize this year in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard sidebar, has been selected to represent Russia in the Best International Feature Film category at the 94th Oscars. The news was announced Monday by the Russian Oscar Committee.