Russianmilitary aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi is backing a new $10m Russian actionmovie Mirror Wars starring MalcolmMcDowell and other Hollywood actors.

Mirror Wars producer Oleg Kapanets declined to put afigure on Sukhoi's financial involvement, however, the company's investment issaid to be "substantial." TheEnglish-language film is produced by the LA and Moscow based Kremlin Films,headed by Kapanets.

A $10 mbudget is high by Russian cinema standards, but Sukhoi hopes the investmentwill pay off later as the biggest star of this film is its new prototypestealth fighter jet. This is the firstfilm that Sukhoi has backed.

The film isdue for a local release next year, as well as key Sukhoi markets, China andIndia, where the movie is planned for wide distribution.

The film iscurrently shooting at Mosfilm studios, on location at the Zhukovsky Airfieldoutside Moscow and in Crimea.

Mirror Wars is the first movie by Russian director VasilyChiginsky. Kapanets takes a script writing credit along with AlexKustanovich. As well as McDowell, themovie features Rutger Hauer, Armand Assanyte and Valeriy Nikolaev (The Terminal, U-Turn, The Saint) in aleading role as a Russian fighter pilot.McDowell plays a villain, which he describes as "an ex-CIA guy whoturned a little bad."

The plot isstructured around the Sukhoi fighter plane and involves competing agents fromthe CIA, FSB and Chinese intelligence.