In St. Petersburg, the shooting of the continuation of the sensational franchise "Major Thunder" with Tikhon Zhiznevsky in the title role - the full-length film "Major Thunder: The Game" has started. The first scenes were filmed on the territory of the former pre-trial detention center "Kresty", where Igor Grom and his partner become participants in a prison riot. The police will try to stand up against the crowd of criminals that broke out of the cells.
The new film, which will be the third full-length project in the cinematic universe, will continue the plot of The Plague Doctor. The action will unfold a year later in the alternative St. Petersburg. According to the plot, Igor Grom is tested by fame, because after defeating the Plague Doctor, he becomes not just recognizable, but also a comic book hero. Soon, Thunder is embroiled in a fight against a mysterious supervillain nicknamed ghost.
In addition to Zhiznevsky, Alexey Maklakov, Lyubov Aksyonova and Alexander Seteykin will return to their roles in the project. Who will play the role of the villain and what new characters will be in the center of the story has not yet been reported. It is known that the previous team headed by the director Oleg Trofim is working on the production of the picture. But the screenwriters were joined by Nikolai Shishkin, who participated in the work on the tapes "Arrow" and "Mother Forever".
- © Kinopoisk
"Major Thunder: The Game", like the previous film projects of the franchise, will not do without an abundance of dynamic scenes with chases and fights. The heroes rehearse the fight scenes with the Kazakh master of sports of international class in taekwondo Robert Kun and his studio "Kun-do". Previously, she was responsible for stunts in the film "Freaks" and staged fight scenes in the tapes of the series "The Last Hero". "Kun-do" has established itself in Hollywood. The studio has repeatedly collaborated with Timur Bekmambetov and worked on his paintings "Especially Dangerous" and "Ben Hur". The studio team also worked on the fighting style of the main character of the picture "Lincoln: Vampire Hunter".
In an interview with Kinopoisk, Kun said that in the "Game" action scenes in terms of complexity and scale will reach a new level. In one of the episodes of the film, Igor fights with dozens of opponents. Despite the fact that Zhiznevsky always has a stunt double on the set for safety reasons, the actor will perform all the combat choreography, including percussion ligaments, throws and falls, on his own. To be in the right physical shape, he actively trained.
"Just today we start shooting a big action scene where Thunder fights 70 people. We divided the scene into three acts. Oleg Trofim wanted each of them to differ in intensity, number of attackers, intensity and weapons. First, five to ten people run up to Thunder with their fists, and in the third act, 30-40 rebellious prisoners jump on him, "said Kuhn. - In this scene, all the action: fighting ligaments, falls, throws - Tikhon performs independently. Therefore, in every frame where we see Major Grom, it is really Tikhon Zhiznevsky."
The upcoming film is based on the comic book of the same name by Bubble Comics, but in the script of the tape there will be significant discrepancies with the original source. According to the comics, a quiet period in Igor's life ends after Sergei Razumovsky escapes from prison. In the film, the villain is a certain Ghost. Fans of the franchise are sure that the plot of the film and comics will be intertwined, but the film adaptation will be "unique".
- © Kinopoisk
Filmmakers promise that when working on the "Game" they will combine all their experience gained while working on previous films, and will try to multiply all that fans appreciate the project so much. At the forefront of the sequel will be not only the high quality of visual design and scale, but also the inner experiences of the hero. The cinematic language, focused on the viewer, will also be taken into account - not only the hero of the project, but also his audience becomes older. The filming process will last until the fall of 2023.
Major Thunder: The Game was announced at Bubble Comics Con in late January 2023.
"We finally announced that 'The Game' is to be!" said Trofim in a video dedicated to the festival.
The director noted that the cinematic universe needs to develop and move on, in connection with which new characters will appear in it. Fans build their options for the development of events: some believe that the villain in the "Game" will be the character of Konstantin Khabensky, who in the previous parts appeared only in scenes after the credits. Others believe that Oleg Volkov, the hero of Dmitry Chebotarev, will return in the image of the Ghost. Some viewers also assume that a heroine from another comic book series will appear on the screen - the Red Fury, to whom a separate film project will be dedicated. By the way, the series about the professional thief Nika Chaikina is already in development.
The first part of the franchise "Major Thunder: Plague Doctor", released on April 1, 2021, earned 317.7 million rubles at the Russian box office. The tape was warmly received by the audience. On the portal Rotten Tomatoes, the audience rating was 76% out of 100%, and on Kinopoisk - 7.2 out of 10. Moreover, the picture was broadcast on the Netflix platform and just for knocks became the most popular, entering the top ten in more than 60 countries. At the same time, the tape topped the rating of the most viewed films in 14 countries. Foreign viewers highly appreciated the authenticity of the project, the visual range, characters, as well as an interesting narrative.
The second part - "Difficult Childhood" - also received positive feedback from the audience, while the filmmakers decided to release it in the online cinema, bypassing the wide distribution. For eight days, the picture was watched by more than 750 thousand subscribers. Major Thunder: The Game is expected to hit the big screen.