Timur Bekmambetov

Commonly regarded as one of the most commercially successful directors of early 21th century Russia, Timur Bekmambetov traveled the path of many a feature helmer by beginning his career in the advertising arena and guiding a series of popular television advertisements through to fruition. Bekmambetov made his debut with the little-seen-abroad Russian picture Peshavarsky Vals (1994), but his science fiction franchise that began in 2004 with Night Watch and continued two years later with a sequel, Day Watch (2006), is what put him over the top and made him an international sensation. These sagas -- complex period thrillers with byzantine narratives about a showdown between the forces of light and the forces of darkness -- became instantaneous cult hits and the most lucrative releases in Russia for years; they also prompted Hollywood to summon Bekmambetov, and the trades reported in 2006 that Rogue Pictures gave him a first-look deal to develop English-language outings for its genre division. Meanwhile, Bekmambetov continued his Russian slate and in fact realized his English-language debut with the Spyglass-Universal release Wanted (2008). This apocalyptic adrenaline rush plays out the saga of a spineless hypochondriac (James McAvoy) drawn inexorably into a society of secret assassins.

~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide