Mashkov and Garmash will compete for the role of Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise

Nikita Mikhalkov’s film company presented a large-scale historical project “Queen Anne”. The picture will take us to the 11th century during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise and tell about the fate of his youngest daughter, Princess Anna, who later became the Queen of France. In some sources, she is called Anna of Russia. The film tells the story of the young princess’s journey to her future crowned husband in France and the dangers that awaited Anna along the way – there were attempts by the Pechenegs to plunder a convoy with a rich dowry, and the Holy Roman Empire tried to prevent the strengthening of the union of Ancient Rus’ and France… Also in history there will be an exciting love story about feelings that were never destined to come true – the love of the valiant warrior Ostromir and the princess.

Filming is set to begin in mid-summer and finish by the end of this year, with a view to hitting the big screen in 2026.

Director Alexey Sidorov (“Shadowboxing,” “T-34,” “World Champion”) presented the dream cast of the project, noting that this is “a story about young people, a story about love.” In particular, Elizaveta Bazykina and Valentina Lyapina are being considered for the role of Princess Anna; her lover, the warrior Ostromir, can be played by Viktor Khorinyak or Ilya Malinin. Sergei Garmash and Vladimir Mashkov are competing for the role of Prince Yaroslav the Wise.

The director also spoke about the difficulties of production.

“Our motorcade (Princess Anna’s motorcade – Ed.) will be a difficult task. Because it will have about 60 riders, 90 horses and a huge number of carts – 200 meters just for the motorcade. How we will do all this is not yet very clear, but we are figuring it out. We need to show a journey of 3000 kilometers. We will film in Russia, probably in the Stavropol region, the North Caucasus and partly Altai. Naturally, we will make the sets and costumes from scratch, since practically nothing has survived from the pre-Mongol era. The film is action-packed – bright, interesting, but not bloody. This is a film about the Golden Age of Ancient Rus’ and about love,” says Sidorov.

Note that in 1978, director Igor Maslennikov shot the film “Yaroslavna, Queen of France” based on the historical novel by Antonin Ladinsky. Then Elena Koreneva starred in the main role – Queen Anne, and Kirill Lavrov played Yaroslav the Wise.

Earlier, director Voloshin spoke about the filming of a new version of the film about the adventures of Pinocchio.