Major photography has just finished on new English language co-production, The St Petersburg Cannes Express, the biggest budget production to shoot in Russia since the 1998 financial crisis and the first in a slated series of new Russian projects being developed by Los Angeles-based Endeavour Productions.

Directed and scripted by John Daly, the co-founder of UK production outfit Hemdale, the film is being backed by Parallel Films (UK), Contact Media Fund (Germany) and PCE Productions (Russia). The co-production has a budget of between $5m and $10m.

A fast paced action thriller set against the background of the last days of the Tsar, the film follows a group of idealistic young revolutionaries determined to overthrow the government. Nearly all the cast and crew are Russian, including Bolshoi ballerina Svetlana Lunkina who plays condemned revolutionary Sophie.

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