#1 ·
Back in 2005, a young French director and writer named Géla Babluani shot his debut feature, "13 Tzameti," on a shoestring budget. It’s a thriller about a guy who accidentally stumbles into a lethal game of Russian roulette played by twelve others. The movie shot to cult status in France almost overnight, picking up awards and nods like Best Director and Best Debut at the Cannes Film Festival 2005, plus the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival 2006. It also made decent money; against a $10,805 investment, it pulled in about $795,223 worldwide.
Since American producers love jumping on foreign remakes immediately—just look at how they turned "Let the Right One In" into "Let Me In"—they decided to grab this one too.
The twist here is that the original director, Géla Babluani, is actually helming the remake. Makes sense why he’d take the gig. Not only does it give his low-budget original more eyes, but it gives him a massive budget and a heavy-hitting cast to tell the story even better. Speaking of the cast, it's actually stacked. You've got a third of the crew from The Expendables, including Mickey Rourke, David Zayas, and Jason Statham, who finally gets a chance to act instead of just being an action hero or a tough guy, like he did in The Bank Job. Then there's Ray Winston, Michael Shannon, Riley, Alexander Skarsgård, Ben Gazzara, Natasha Lyonne, and 50 cent. Ray Liotta was originally tied to the project, but he dropped out for reasons nobody really knows.
The film hit the States on March 13th at the South by Southwest Film Festival, but we're still waiting on a wide release date. It's hitting theaters in Russia on October 28th, and they've already dropped the only available trailer. It’s in Russian, unfortunately, but it looks pretty interesting regardless. Early reviews are mostly positive, so let's hope for the best when it finally hits our shores...
IMDB
TRAILER - in Russian
Plot Summary
IMAGES
Since American producers love jumping on foreign remakes immediately—just look at how they turned "Let the Right One In" into "Let Me In"—they decided to grab this one too.
The twist here is that the original director, Géla Babluani, is actually helming the remake. Makes sense why he’d take the gig. Not only does it give his low-budget original more eyes, but it gives him a massive budget and a heavy-hitting cast to tell the story even better. Speaking of the cast, it's actually stacked. You've got a third of the crew from The Expendables, including Mickey Rourke, David Zayas, and Jason Statham, who finally gets a chance to act instead of just being an action hero or a tough guy, like he did in The Bank Job. Then there's Ray Winston, Michael Shannon, Riley, Alexander Skarsgård, Ben Gazzara, Natasha Lyonne, and 50 cent. Ray Liotta was originally tied to the project, but he dropped out for reasons nobody really knows.
The film hit the States on March 13th at the South by Southwest Film Festival, but we're still waiting on a wide release date. It's hitting theaters in Russia on October 28th, and they've already dropped the only available trailer. It’s in Russian, unfortunately, but it looks pretty interesting regardless. Early reviews are mostly positive, so let's hope for the best when it finally hits our shores...
IMDB
TRAILER - in Russian
Plot Summary
Plot Summary: A naive young man assumes a dead man's identity and finds himself embroiled in an underground world of power, violence, and chance where men gamble behind closed doors on the lives of other men.
IMAGES
