The Russian distribution sector is gaining a new player with the launch of Dreamteam.

Mark Lolo, who exited his post as president of the distributor-producer Central Partnership a year ago to pursue his “own projects”, is joined at the head of the new venture by another seasoned professional, Andrei Tereshok, formerly CEO of the Kronverk chain of cinemas which has screens in Russia and Ukraine.

With one release planned a month from next January, Dreamteam’s first title will be on Jan 1: Dmitri Dyachenko’s comedy Faster Than Rabbits (Bystree, chem kroliki), featuring the comedy troupe Kvartet I who also appeared in Dyachenko’s 2010 film What Men Talk About (O chyom govoryat muzhchiny), a Russian, male answer to Sex And The City.

This will be followed on Feb 13 by the world premiere of Armen Gevorgyan’s romantic comedy Unreal Love (Nerealnaya Lyubov) with Gosha Kutsenko and Marina Alexandrovna.

Amonth later it will release Gazgolder, described as “a musical fairytale for adults” and featuring the musicians and artists belonging to the Gazgolder creative association such as Basta and Bratia Stereo.

Meanwhile, Alexander Vartanov’s contemporary reworking of Alexander Pushkin’s novel Dubrovsky will be released in April on 1,000 prints, according to the film’s producer Evgeny Gindilis of Tvindie. (A five-part TV version has been directed by Vartanov and Kirill Mikhanovsky)

The crime drama stars Russia’s answer to Brad Pitt, Danila Kozlovsky, who headlined box office hit Legend 17, and recently worked on his first US film, Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters.

A May release date is planned for Alexei Uchitel’s Break Loose (Vosmerka), an explosive crime drama about the violent rivalry that erupts when an operative from the OMON elite police force falls for a gangster’s moll.

The Rock Films production had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and is being handled internationally by Wide Management.

Other titles already confirmed for Dreamteam’s lineup are Nikita Mikhalkov’s Sunstroke (Solnechny Udar), based on a short story by Ivan Bunin, which was shot on location in Odessa and Switzerland in 2012, and Artyom Aksyonenko’s Moscow-set romantic comedy Congratulations To Men On Women’s Day (S 8 marta, muzhchiny!) with Maxim Vitorgan, Svetlana Ivanova, Vera Alentova, and Mikhail Bashkatov.

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