Victor Ginzburg: I want to merchandize ideas, not Batman figurines
By Nadezhda Seryozhkina, MIR 24 (source)
The new vampire fantasy, Empire V, will hit movie screens at the end of 2019. This adaptation of the novel by Victor Pelevin will be the second movie on general release by the American-Russian director, Victor Ginzburg. The first was Generation P, also from a novel by Pelevin and released in 2011.
The new movie features young stars of Russian music and cinema, Oxxxymiron and Pavel Tabakov, as well as Vera Alentova, Victor Verzhbitsky and Vladimir Dolinsky. The MIR 24 reporter met Victor Ginzburg on the set of Empire V and learnt why he is tired of genre movies, how rap battles are the duels of the 21st century, and why blockchain will change the movie industry.
– Empire V has a very unusual cast. One of the main characters, the evil Mitra, is played by the rap star, Oxxxymiron (real name Miron Fyodorov) who has no acting experience. What made you take this risk?
– Pelevin’s novel has a very poetic ending. The way it is in the book doesn’t work well in cinema terms. I discussed this with Victor and we decided that the final duel needs to be presented in a fresh way.
I took an interest in Miron long ago, way before the project began and we started casting. I was curious about how rap battles emerged and evolved, and what they inherit from the culture of duels. When we were auditioning and looking for someone to play the Mitra character, I realized that this was a form of existence, which is organic and right for him. Certainly, Miron is not a professional actor and taking part in the project is a big challenge for him, but we decided to try. The duel scene was shot just recently and as director I was very impressed by the result.
– Why Pelevin again?
I like to solve his enigmas of the modern world and I enjoy materializing them. We are living at a time when cinema is expanding beyond visual experience. It can’t stay genre-based or analogue without becoming boring. Cinema gets interesting when it changes people’s consciousness and becomes a part of life.
I want to merchandize ideas, not Batman figurines.
Generation P was one man’s story in the new Russia, flooded by the advertising mirage of capitalism. It’s a movie about brands and TV manipulation of mass consciousness, about creating the illusion of happiness and prosperity. That’s why we brought a record number of brands into the movie and gave them ironic roles.
Empire V opens people’s eyes to how the world really is: people are nothing but a source of nutrition for a privileged vampire caste, which rules mankind by means of glamour and discourse. Glamour is false material values, which people live for. Discourse is a mind control technology that keeps people focused on earning money non-stop.
Viewers are ready to support a movie like this. We crowdfunded a record amount for Russia, enough to get the project underway. So the viewers are our producers and investors. Bablos is being materialized as cryptocurrency right now on the Bablos.com platform, in parallel with the making of the film. Every token is linked to the future box office takings and blockchain makes all of the transactions transparent. This way our viewers get unique access to the process of movie creation — they effectively take part in it. This expands the bounds of the movie and changes the whole nature of the movie industry.
– Has Pelevin worked on the Empire V movie script?
No. He deliberately refuses to read it.
We discussed just three things with Pelevin while working on the screenplay — things that it was important for me to know his opinion about. First, what role to give to female vampires; second, how many vampires to use as key characters; and third, how to do the duel scene. So he wasn’t really involved in work on the screenplay. We just checked some details with him.
For me, this movie is a sequel to Generation P, which I made in 2011. I asked Pelevin to write a screenplay for that movie and his response was: “I’ve read some books with titles like ‘How to write a screenplay in 30 days’ and I know that this isn’t my thing. I can’t be thinking about the color of a character’s socks in a particular scene.” And he’s right, this is a different type of work.
I think we took the right decision. Movies and literature can’t exist in the same plane.
Screenplay writing needs tough, ruthless editing, changing the characters and filling them out. Effectively, we retell the story how we want and this can be very painful for the author. Pelevin was smart enough to distance himself from that. I can ask him a few questions, but he keeps away from the screenplay on principle.
– Who is the target audience of your movie? Judging by the cast, you expect the movie-goers to be younger people. But young people today aren’t passionate readers of Pelevin.
We don’t just have young actors, We also have experienced and well-known stars like Vladimir Dolinsky, Victor Verzhbitsky and Vera Alentova.
There’s another important thing. With all due respect, our actors aren’t box office wonders — people movie-goers will pay money just to see. So casting is irrelevant. Things don’t work like that in Russia. We don’t have Tom Cruise-type stars — names that can make people buy a ticket. Our movie is about all of the actors working together.
I think we are targeting a broad audience aged 16–35, and I expect all sorts of people to come, not just people who have read the book. I think you can read the book after seeing the movie, not before, and you will have a more complete picture.
The plot will seem more natural to young people, who spend most of their time in virtual space. They can sense the drama of the film: a person of their age finds himself in a new society and tries to find solid ground there.
When we released the teaser, we found that 80% of viewers are young people who don’t know Pelevin’s books. The teaser drew several million views in a few days and I’m pleased that it was watched by the philosophical, attractive young hooligans of today.
But, frankly, the main audience of my movie is myself. I aim to create a film, which I would enjoy watching.
– Do you have an answer to the big question everyone was asking after Generation P?
You mean who is behind all this? Good question. I’m still not completely sure, but I give part of the answer in the new movie.
Empire V tries to recreate a philosophical matrix of the modern world, to look behind the scenes and discover the forces that manage human society and its material ambitions from a Russian point of view. That is the supreme task.
– Do you like it when people recognize you on the street?
To be honest, in Russia I’m almost invisible, and that is fine with me. And when I’m not filming, I live in a district of Los Angeles called Venice Beach. It’s where I have lived for nearly 25 years. You come across all sorts of people there, from Hollywood actors and directors to white-collar workers and down-and-outs. It’s a little American Babylon and I feel at home there. Nobody recognizes me except close neighbors. Everyone is too busy with their own business. Looking for celebrities would take all their time, and there’s a life to live.
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