At Mosfilm, the shooting of a fantastic feature film about the adventures of Smeshariki continues. In the story, Krosh and Hedgehog find an unusual device in Chamomile Valley that takes them to a game about the future, where they are ordinary children on a spaceship flying to Mars. The adventure begins when the heroes realize that this is not a game – the ship is real. It has already landed on the set, all under the glow of metallic and neon signs, something in the style of retro-futurism.
The film “Smeshariki. Space Excursion” is directed by Andrei Marmontov, the creator of “Gold” based on Mamin-Sibiryak and the serial thrillers “Insomnia” and “Explosion”. The name of the screenwriter removes all doubts: Sergei Lukyanenko.
Why did the creator of the cult series “Clockwork” need a cartoon world? RG asked the writer himself about this.
Sergey Vasilyevich, before filming, you said that the project “Smeshariki Space Excursion” became a challenge for you. What did you want to say?
Sergey Lukyanenko: There was a time when I became convinced that the script for an animated film and the script for a feature film are two different things. And when you combine them, you can’t just do it by adding two genres – this is a kind of combination, this is, let’s say, a new product. And the craft is new. But I’ve always liked films that are combined with animation: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Cool World… And that’s why when the producers of the Ricky Group of Companies invited me to write a script for the first animated fiction film about Smeshariki, I gladly accepted. Yes, it’s a challenge, but at the same time it’s an extremely interesting experience.
You said your children grew up in Smeshariki? Did they influence the script in any way?
Sergei Lukyanenko: I started watching this series with my eldest son on “Good Night, Kids.” And literally from the first episodes I was fascinated by this world and admired the way it was invented. Some lines from the series have even entered our lives. And obviously, our vision of what is happening with these wonderful characters was reflected in the work on the script, because my children, my wife and I talked a lot about this fictional, but very close universe. In general, while working on the script it seemed to me that I was continuing the world I had invented. This feeling never left me for a minute.
You probably filled this world with new meanings…
Sergey Lukyanenko: For me, this film is, first and foremost, entertaining. It is family-friendly, for children and adults. And it shouldn’t be, and it doesn’t have the right to be. We know how to make serious films, but for some reason we don’t like it very much or we are not very good at making kind and cheerful films. The creators of “Smeshariki” do just that. And we also tried to make the film the same way: kind, cheerful and positive.
For me, the main thing in our film is the feeling of a good future, the feeling of a huge open world that awaits adventures, awaits young heroes. There may be trials and difficulties in this world, but in any case it is a good world. This is the kind of world you should want to live in. You know how it is presented, say, in Kir Bulychev’s books about Alice. I wouldn’t say that “Smeshariki” and Alisa Bulycheva live in the same universe, but their worlds are clearly close to each other.
Why are writers and directors increasingly turning to the language of fantasy to talk about a beautiful world?
Sergey Lukyanenko: Science fiction is a dream, it is fantasy, it is liberation… It is an opportunity to build any situation in which the best qualities of a person can manifest themselves. This is probably why there are so many science fiction films now, especially those filmed in the West. However, they also film it here, but it is not so famous.
Fiction is truly a language. This is a language in which you can tell any story, romantic, sad, a story about growing up, a story about the meaning of life. I really like speaking this language because it gives me a great degree of freedom.
How to talk about the future with children? After all, every tomorrow begins today, and reality, it seems, is far from beautiful…
Sergei Lukyanenko: How to talk to children about the future? This, you know, is a very difficult question. If I could answer this unambiguously, I would probably have to write a whole training course for schools or for additional education. I don’t know… You have to believe. First of all, you need to believe in the future, you need to believe that everything will work out, that the world will be better, that it is getting better.
And if this feeling is there, it is transmitted to the children, it is transmitted to those around them. It becomes a beacon burning somewhere ahead…
Judging by the annotation, the film about “Smeshariki” explores another important theme: the line between game and reality…
Sergey Lukyanenko: On the one hand, this topic was inevitable, since we essentially have two realities in contact: the real one and the game one. On the other hand, this is a really important topic of conversation with the modern viewer, because many people not only exist in two worlds at the same time, but do not see the difference between them. Whether this is good or bad, I do not know, but it is a fact. And I, as a writer who reflects reality, could not ignore this new moment in our lives.
This summer, discussions have been renewed in Russia about whether or not to remake Soviet classics. Do you have a clear answer?
Sergey Lukyanenko: I take it easy. The director and the screenwriter have the right to interpret a given film work. After all, the best literary works have been filmed many times. Films can also be remade many times and in different ways. There are much more opportunities for this now than ten or twenty years ago. But we must clearly understand that this is always a very big challenge. In any case, the viewer will compare it with what happened before. He simply will not accept a new version, but with worse direction, unconvincing performances and bad actors. Success here is possible only in one case – if you manage to disrupt the image already established in the viewer’s head. It is difficult, but there are such examples. Take as an example “An Ordinary Miracle” by Evgeniy Schwartz – we all immediately remember the wonderful film adaptation by Mark Zakharov, but there was another one, filmed in the sixties, also very beautiful, with wonderful actors, with the same events and meanings, but different. Zakharov’s film adaptation replaced the previous version and today no one remembers it.
This means that it is good to re-shoot, to make a high-quality remake of an old film. And this has always been done, even during the Soviet era.
You recently wrote an emotional post about how in five years technology will allow you to film and remake whatever you want. Do you want to see the heroes of Battleship Potemkin in space? If you want Andrei Mironov, Charlie Chaplin and Sophia Loren to act in the same scene, no problem. It sounds promising, but it is not clear: is this still a benefit to art or its death?
Sergey Lukyanenko: I’ll start with the fact that we have come very close to the moment when cinema becomes an individual art. Neural networks and computer technologies are developing more and more, and I really believe that in 5-10 years it will be possible to put some text into a neural network, and the neural network will draw it very convincingly, and also put any actors you want in the main roles, it doesn’t matter if they are alive or have already passed into another world. Will this kill cinema in the sense we are used to, cinema created by one director, one cameraman, or a large group of people? Don’t think. Most likely, films will satisfy the interests of a small group of people, the rest will continue to watch films made in the studio, albeit using artificial intelligence and other new functions. Probably, the profession of neurodirector will appear, who will do all this professionally.
What benefit could a neural network bring to art? There are many books in the world that have never been adapted for film, but which have the right to be brought to the screen, even if in a simplified form. Neural network cinema can fill this gap.
I think the future is coming, it is very interesting, it brings great new opportunities for a creative person.
