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Russian state-run bank VTB has taken over the country’s largest film studio complex, Glavkino, nicknamed “the Russian Hollywood.”
The information about the deal originally appeared on the government’s website and was later confirmed by VTB.
“VTB has increased its stake in Glavkino and plans to participate in further development of the studio complex,” a spokeswoman for VTB told The Hollywood Reporter, providing no further details.
According to the government’s site, VTB now fully controls the studio complex through its subsidiary, VTB Project. As of December, Glavkino was still owned by its founders, director, producer and chairman of the board of Lenfilm studio Fyodor Bondarchuk and producer Ilya Bachurin, and several private individuals and companies, according to the shareholders’ registry, with no stake owned by VTB.
However, the lender provided funding for the studio’s complex at the time of its construction, with the buildings and land serving as collateral.
Glavkino’s spokeswoman declined to provide any specifics regarding the plans for the studio complex. Glavkino declined to comment.
With a total area of studio facilities at 21,000 square meters, Glavkino, located outside Moscow, is the country’s largest film studio complex. Among its customers are Timur Bekmambetov’s Bazelevs and Nikita Mikhalkov’s Trite.
At the time of its launch five years ago, the studio complex revealed plans to attract Hollywood crews and reportedly negotiated with Fox and Universal about collaboration.
However, U.S. sanctions slapped on Russia over Ukraine and the Crimea in 2014 led to souring of the relations between the two countries, and there has been no further word about collaborations with Hollywood.
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