Disney to Make Sequel to 'Last Knight,' Russia's Top-Grossing Local-Language Film

Released in October, the movie brought in $29.5 million in the country.


Walt Disney will make a sequel to its Russian-language hit movie Posledni bogatyr (The Last Knight), the top local-language release of all time in Russia.


Just like the first movie, the sequel will be produced in collaboration with Russian production company Yellow, Black and White, and the same team of writers, headed by Vitaly Shlyappo, is currently working on the script.


Yellow, Black and White unveiled the news in a statement on its website. "For us, the success of The Last Knight came as a great joy," said Marina Zhigalova-Ozkan, head of Disney's Russian office. "Nearly 7.8 million people watched our fairy tale, and we are especially pleased that entire families came to see it."


No further details of the sequel were announced. The Last Knight centered on Ivan, a young Muscovite who was mysteriously transported into a fairy tale world.


The movie was directed by Dmitriy Dyachenko and released in Russia on Oct. 26, 2017, by Walt Disney Studios Sony Pictures Releasing, the two majors' distributor for the Russian market, grossing $29.5 million.


The movie beat Fyodor Bondarchuk's Stalingrad to become Russia's highest-grossing local-language movie of all time.


Disney is among the few Hollywood majors that have dared to produce local-language movies in Russia. Back in 2009, it released Kniga masterov (The Book of Masters), which grossed $10.8 million.


In the mid-2000s, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Patton Media launched Monumental Pictures, a company focused on Russian-language movies, but its releases were less successful. It hasn't released anything since 2012.