I just found out about this last Saturday at the WonderCon in San Francisco. It was a HUGE blockbuster in Russia, outselling the major American films that were out then. So they'll be releasing it in the US in a few days, first in a few select theaters and then gradually in more and more. Plus, it's the first part of a trilogy: the next film, already released in Russia, is Day Watch. The third hasn't been made yet; it will be in English, the name will be Dusk Watch and it's due in November.
So downstairs in the actual convention where people were selling things, someone was selling some foreign DVDs and in amongst all the low-budget Asian horror and soft-porn films I found Night Watch. Since it was supposed to be a great movie, I bought it and watched it the next day.
This really is as great as they were saying, and I know I'll be heading to the theater as soon as it gets released. It's about people called "Others" who aren't really human and they live a long time. They are divided into "Light" and "Dark." The Dark ones are vampires, while the Lights only drink blood if it's really necessary. To keep each other from getting the upper hand, there is a group of Lights who keep an eye on the Dark (the Night Watch) and a group of Darks who do the same for the Light (the Day Watch). And they're waiting for the Great Other who will tip the scales and end the centuries-old conflict--and which side will win depends on which side the Great Other chooses to be on.
The American DVD release is not yet scheduled, but I was able to pre-order it on Netflix. I should see it sometime before the end of the year -- I hope.
Sounds kind of weird. Assuming it comes to a theater within reasonable driving distance (and by that I mean within an hour's drive), I might check it out. BTW any word about whether it'll be subtitled or dubbed?
Re:Night Watch
I suspect that it will vary depending on region...
I think that the Region 2 DVD release will be "subbed", & possibly the R1 version will be
dubbed....
(You bought the Region 5 DVD, I take it...?).
BTW, Tom, did they have the Yellow Zil-131 truck, with the accomodation module, there...?
(They were using it to promote Night Watch at a London Anime/S.F convention 2 years ago...).
The film is being released on the 14th of April in the U.K.
The Region 2 DVD's supposed to be out in August in the U.K, though I'm not sure exactly when in August...
I don't know much about regions, and I don't know which one my DVD is. I can't check now because I let somebody borrow it right after I watched it and I haven't gotten around to asking for it back. The packaging was entirely in Russian, as was the DVD menu.
They didn't have the truck at the convention. What they did do was show us the entire movie--flashed by in 5 minutes.