Who killed the incomprehensible Russian threequel?

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 | 6:15 PM

One more NY Comic Con tidbit:

Russian-Kazakh director Timur Bekmambetov made his name with "Night Watch," that epilepsy-inducingly excessive fantasy blockbuster about good and evil battling it out in the streets of modern Moscow that beat out "The Lord of the Rings" at the Russian box office. "Day Watch," the film's somewhat less fun and certainly less intelligible sequel, did even better on its home turf, racking in a reported $32 million. So what's become of "Dusk Watch," the planned third film in the trilogy? Bekmambetov, at the New York convention with shiny graphic novel adaptation "Wanted," was asked about the status and, according to IGN, claims its fate is dubious:

"[Wanted] is my Dusk Watch for now," the director said during the panel, "because it's really the same chance, a different story, but the same genre. Unfortunately I don't know when Dusk Watch will happen... Let's say this is Dusk Watch."

In other words, given the opportunity, who wouldn't trade in Konstantin Khabensky and Mariya Poroshina for James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie? Though it might have been doomed to happen anyway. Fox Searchlight, who bought the U.S. rights to the full "Watch" trilogy, was at one point supposed to finance "Dusk Watch," which would reportedly be shot in the U.S., in English, with different actors. One wonders if Bekmambetov became too big for such plans, or Fox nixed things when "Day Watch" barely pulled in half a mil here in the U.S.

[Photo: "Day Watch," Fox Searchlight, 2007]