Timur Bekmambetov, give us a sense of your background and how you got into directing. You did some early work—including Arena, also known as Gladiatrix—for Roger Corman, right?

Bekmambetov: I started as an art director for movies, and then I became a director for commercials, because there was no film market in Russia. I like commercials. They make me—how you say?—full ... satisfied. I have a very strong relationship with the audience in Russia because of the commercials. I know how, in 30 seconds, to tell them a story and how to entertain them. It gave me a great background. But the second big influence on me, on my work, is Roger Corman. His way of filmmaking is very helpful for Russian filmmakers. It's quick and cheap, but it's also smart and human and entertaining. He wants to create something for the audience, for the real audience. As a director, you have to serve the audience and make them happy, and his films also do that. And he always makes his films efficiently and effectively.This movie feels like a combination of the Sergei Lukyanenko novels and several popular genre movies. How did the story evolve?

Bekmambetov: We had two different possible ways to develop this project. We could create a world to tell the story or tell the story to create the world. And we chose the second one because this story isn't unique. This is a combination of different stereotypes and ideas, but the world is unique. And we decided, "OK, people have to understand enough to believe that this world exists, and not more." For example, in The Matrix, it was like five or 10 minutes just to explain what everything means. That's not my movie. I think people have to react, have to cry, have to scream, have to laugh, but not think, because thinking is just a tool.But people do have to think to follow the story's threads, wouldn't you agree?

Bekmambetov: Yeah, because they feel something. They feel something, and now they're trying to understand. But if I try to explain to them about the existing world, it would take four minutes. It's impossible. It's an existing world. It's a mystery. We are developing this world in the second movie, with more detail, but it's just the same. It's just the emotional story. You're following the story. Anton [Konstantin Khabensky] lost his son. It's the story of Yegor [Dima Martynov], who chose the dark side. And Anton will fall in love with Svetlana [Maria Poroshina].

Anatoly Maximov and Konstantin Ernst, how tempted were you to dub Night Watch into English? Some might argue that that would help attract the American audience, as foreign-language films are often a tough sell in the States.

Maximov: It was taken into decision that the movie shall be in Russian language by folks [in charge], which we deeply respect. In different territories, it shall be dubbed. In France, in Germany, in different markets. We're asking people, first of all, what the movie is—is it a genre piece movie or an art-house film? What you've seen here, this [subtitled] version, what your vision? How do you see it? The story is very dense. Would you recommend that people interested in the film read the Lukyanenko novel beforehand?

Maximov: With the books, it's totally different. We inherited only the basic structure of the book, light against dark, lead characters and the writer. We realize the plot is probably overloaded. We realize this is a problem of seeing the movie, that it can be confusing. But if people can survive the first movie and get to the second one, it will be clear. Every plot line will be understandable, or we believe so. We're trying to make it this way.How in keeping with the first two films will the last film in the franchise be?

Ernst: I think it will be more of a prequel. Will it be set in Russia or America?

Maximov: Based in America. Based absolutely in America. Just now I think we have a very interesting story.Films released internationally are quite often edited before they reach American theaters. So, is the version of Night Watch that will open here on Feb. 17 the same one that's played in Russia and elsewhere around the world?

Maximov: The movie cut is completely different from what you've seen here because in Russia there is a completely different cut of the movie. It is 20 minutes longer. We shot additional material for the American version in Russian, so it is completely different.What would you say is the major difference between the two versions of the film?

Maximov: We cut out one of the plot lines to make it a little bit lighter, a little less complicated. [Another character is] completely out of it. We took [bits] off of every scene. We dubbed [over] any mention of it. One of the principal characters is cut who was in the book. And is the version to be released here the version that played in Western Europe?

Maximov: The American version is equally international—as usual.

Some cultural observers are describing Night Watch as a post-Soviet film. What do you make of that statement?

Maximov: I would say we are starting from zero ground. Soviet film has a history. Ten years ago, there were 12 films in production. At last count, there were 150 films in production in 10 years. So, Soviet period of time has been like a forest fire. It was a zero ground transition in this moment, and we even lost the audience of Soviet filmgoers, which was a big competitor to America for a certain period of time. We started the process of cinema in Russia. We started in 1995 with one cinema, and now it's around 1,000 theaters, screens. And our movies need to be dressed in the American way visually to convey a domestic message to the audience.