Welcome to our marquee appraisal system for the 21st century.

Marquee Stars appraises the box office prominence of marquee performers, directors, screenwriters and producers based on algorithmically adjusted moving averages.  We also provide a free online calculator for use with our downloaded reports that anticipates the relative market strength of specific marquee package combinations in that 4 to 24-month window prior to release — when most talent-related capital decisions must be made.

We further provide at-a-glance capsule summaries of the films, stars, faces, roles as well as the box office trends and strategies that presently drive world cinema.  In particular, we focus on those bellwether films most likely to impact the future as determined by a measured combination of box office performance, critical approval and/or audience satisfaction.

We come from the ranks of filmmakers and distributors.  Our purpose is to provide a responsible statistical challenge to the usual tyranny of the numbers that so dominates the thinking of studio bureaucrats, territorial film buyers and foreign sales agents and that, in the process, too often strangles the very life out of creativity.  Marquee Stars exists for the victims of the number crunchers … to identify unfairly overlooked talent … and to prepare their advocates to make the case on their behalf.  At a minimum, for decision-makers, our Appraisal Guide offers a comprehensive international list of active talent sorted by surname and by prominence.

Click the image below and follow the link to receive a free PDF download of our complete Marquee Appraisal Guide (allow 30 seconds for processing) or start the video tutorial above to learn more.

1 & 3-month box office trends as measured against the 1-year trendline

(Click chart for enlarged view)

Avatar

Sam Worthington

Director: James Cameron
Writer: James Cameron
Producers: James Cameron, Jon Landau

Stars:

Sam Worthington
Zoe Saldana
Sigourney Weaver

Tri-genre: hypothetical virtuality science fiction
Story Situation: space travel
Satisfaction Rating: excellent
Maturity Rating: 13+

Zoe Saldana instructs Sam Worthington

Plotline: In a perhaps not-so-distant future, wheelchair-bound paraplegic combat Marine veteran Jake (Sam Worthington) travels to the planet Pandora to replace his deceased twin brother on a scientific expedition led by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) to make peace with the native humanoid inhabitants, the Na’vi. The primitive planet is being mined by a corporate consortium for a unique counter-gravity mineral that could solve Earth’s critical energy crisis. Because Pandora’s atmosphere is unbreathable, and because humans look so different from the 12-foot long-tailed, blue-skinned natives, expedition team members have their minds linked to a remote-controlled biological Na’vi body, or “avatar,” a genetically-engineered bio-matched hybrid of each human’s own DNA with native DNA. The richest ore deposits are located underneath the Na’vi’s sacred “home tree.” Jake’s mission, separate from Dr. Augustine’s scientific research, is to convince the Na’vi to peacefully relocate and allow the mining. Otherwise, in three months, Col. Quaritch’s (Stephen Lang) gung-ho mercenary army will force them out.

On the first day of the expedition into Pandora’s Jurassic rain forest, Jake is separated from his team when attacked by a giant hammerhead rhino creature, then rescued at nightfall from the many Jurassic beasts by nimble Na’vi princess Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). Neytiri’s father (Wes Studi), the tribal chief, orders her to teach Jake the ways of the Na’vi during a probationary period while he decides what to do with him. Jake’s relationship with his reluctant teacher soon blossoms into a romance as Jake learns to respect the Na’vi and their harmonious communion with nature, and comes to comprehend the importance of their sacred areas to their lives. Torn between loyalties, Jake finally chooses to lead the Na’vi in a defensive battle against the attacking corporate mercenary machine.

Sam Worthington (L) and his CGI Avatar (R)

Zoe Saldana

Move over George Lucas…
With this ingenious masterwork, auteur director James Cameron now lays claim to the mantle of Hollywood’s greatest epic sci-fi filmmaker. He makes it look easy. And it’s not. He makes the story seem simple. But it’s not. Tiny threads are drawn from 2001 Space Odyssey, Jurassic Park, We Were Soldiers, Dances with Wolves, The Incredible Hulk and Pinocchio (yes, Jake becomes a real boy), then all these elements are seamlessly woven into a Pocahontas love story. At the same time, Cameron delivers a cautionary subtextual message about natural resources and hot-headed militarism with obvious implications for the modern era. Also, with landmark next-generation motion-captured CGI visual effects, this film should be studied by upcoming filmmakers for many years to come. Breakthrough performances include Australia’s Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation), Cameron veteran Sigourney Weaver (Aliens) and especially CGI-enveloped Zoe Saldana (Star Trek, Drumline).

Oh, yeah, Avatar ought to be an instant contender for Oscar’s Best Picture.

Posted: December 15, 2009

Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela

Invictus

Director: Clint Eastwood
Writer: Anthony Peckham
Producers: Clint Eastwood, Robert Lorenz

Stars:

Morgan Freeman
Matt Damon

Tri-genre: sports true life drama
Story Situation: new leader
Satisfaction Rating: excellent
Maturity Rating: 13+

Mandela reaches out to team captain Pienaar

Plotline: 1994-1995. As the first elected post-apartheid President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) lends his considerable support to the national rugby team, preventing abolition of its hated apartheid-era “Springboks” name and lobbying for South Africa to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup. He also reaches out personally to white team captain Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) in hopes of inspiring the team to improve its losing record sufficiently to give the nation a common reason to root for their country. On the eve of the World Cup championship, Mandela gives Pienaar the Invictus poem by William Ernest Henley that Mandela had kept in his prison cell during his 27-year political incarceration. Pienaar subsequently leads his team to victory, helping to unite the country and commence the process of racial healing.

Clint Eastwood

Oscar-Bound Sports Stories
Go-for-it, feel-good sports stories are a staple in Hollywood. But like real sporting events — such as boxer Joe Lewis kayoing Nazi Germany’s Max Schmeling, or baseball MVP Jackie Robinson playing for the majors, or an amateur American hockey team defeating a professional Soviet team for Olympic Gold — sports movies only transcend the Rocky cliché when the personal drama on the sporting field also reflects a larger drama in the whole society. And by this criterion, Invictus easily scores the game point. Master auteur filmmaker Clint Eastwood earns the story’s uplifting dénouement the hard way: by drawing on old fashioned good writing, excellent direction, infectious cast chemistry and a genuinely great performance from Morgan Freeman as the genuinely great statesman Nelson Mandela. In real life, prior to the World Cup, Mandela gave Pienaar a quote from Teddy Roosevelt’s The Man in the Arena speech. But that one imprecise bit of cinematic license should not detract from Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon or Clint Eastwood’s likely Oscar-bound goal posts.

(L) Hidetoshi Nishijima and Miho Nakayama as inconvenient lovers

Saying Goodbye, One Day (Sayonara Itsuka; サヨナライツカ)

Director: John H. Lee
Writer: Man-hee Lee, John H. Lee, Shinho Lee
Producers: Jae S. Shim, Young S. Hwang

Stars:

Miho Nakayama
Nidetoshi Nishijima
Yuriko Ishida

Tri-genre: relationships erotic romance
Story Situation: torn-between-lovers
Satisfaction Rating: above average
Maturity Rating: 17+

Plotline: A man marries one woman but loves another:  Yutaka (Hidetoshi Nishijimia) has been transferred to Bangkok for Eastern Airlines.  He’s engaged to marry Michiko (Yuriko Ishida), a relative of the airline’s founder.  He does not really love her, but knows he could head the airline one day if he marries her.  At a bar, Yutaka meets a beautiful girl from the local Japanese community, Toko (Miho Nakayama), and is fiercely attracted to her.  They begin an impassioned affair.  His relationship with Toko heats up just as his wedding day approaches.  Yutaka has his life planned out and does not want to change course, so he harshly breaks it off with Toko, even calling his fiancée in front of her.  Disheartened, Toko leaves for New York the next day.  Meanwhile Yutaka and Michiko reunite in Bangkok and marry.  Twenty-five years later, Yutaka and Michiko remain married and have two sons.  But Yutaka has never forgotten Toko.  On a business trip to Bangkok, he nostalgically revisits the Oriental Hotel where he had taken Toko during their affair only to discover that she now heads up VIP Guest Services.  They realize, of course, that their love for each other remains strong, but life commitments have taken them in other directions.  They part once again.

Comment:  This atypically sexual romance for the Japanese market, from American-educated director John H. Lee, may provide some art house play in non-Japanese territories owing to the performances of its charismatic quality stars.  Popular Japan Academy Award Best Actress nominee Miho Nakayama returns to the screen after an eight-year hiatus living with her husband in Paris in order to star in this motion picture based on the eponymous novel written by her husband Jinsei Tsuji.

Multi-lingual director John H. Lee, though born in Korea, moved to the United States at the age of 12.  Upon graduation from New York University Film School, he made his feature debut with the English-language film The Cut Runs Deep.  After a run on the international film festival circuit, The Cut Runs Deep was released in Korea in 2000 and became an instant cult classic.  Since this initial success, Lee has directed over 25 international music videos as well as the top-grossing Korean-language romance, A Moment to Remember.  Saying Goodbye, One Day is Lee’s first Japanese-language film.

Posted: November 29, 2009

(L) Newlywed Ryoko Hirosue bids farewell to her husband Hidetoshi Nishijima at the train station then a few days later (R) comes looking for him after his unexplained disappearance

Zero Focus (Zero no Shuten, ゼロの焦点)

Director: Isshin Inudou
Screenwriters: Kenji Nakazono, Isshin Inudou

Stars:

Ryoko Hirosue … Sadako
Miki Nakatani … Sachiko
Takashi Kaga … Gisaku
Tae Kimura … Hisako

Tri-genre: crime mystery suspense
Story Situation: riddle
Satisfaction Rating: above average
Maturity Rating: 0+

Plotline:  About 1957.  One week into Ryoko Hiroshue’s arranged marriage, her husband Hidetoshi Nishijima fails to return from a brief business trip.  When his employer calls to inquire about his whereabouts, she decides to follow him to Kanazawa.  There she triggers a sequence of murders when she questions two women, Miki Nakatani and Tae Kimura, from her husband’s client company.  As events progress, she realizes her husband led a double life and that she is tracking a serial killer from inside the world of prostitution.

Comment:  Until his death in 1992, mystery writer Seicho Matsumoto was Japan’s Raymond Chandler, providing a literary wellspring for multitudes of films and television shows.  This prestige remake of a 1961 film offers a more faithful version of Matsumoto’s popular novel of the same name.  Visualized in the style of a Hitchcock thriller, Zero Focus also includes a protracted Ellery Queen wrap-up explanation upon revelation of the killer that, although commonplace in Japanese cinema, tends not to play well in other markets.

Leonardo di Carprio and Mark Ruffalo in 'Shutter Island'

Utilizing our free online package calculator, Marquee Stars offers the following box office prognostications for the upcoming weekend.  They represent “typical” performance expectations as derived from recent moving averages in combination with regression analysis.  Forecast results are charted against box office outcomes as they become available in the Latest Forecast Results section below.

The below prognosticated forecast was finalized on Friday morning, February 19th, based on the last announced screen counts.

Marquee Stars developed its online package calculator more as an afterthought - a natural outgrowth of the methodology we use to double-check our marquee rankings.  We hope to inspire a more inventive approach to and greater creative freedom for marquee packaging by providing filmmakers with a simple war gaming capability … in stark contrast to the traditional list of a half dozen celebrities preferred by one given marketer or another.

Just as political campaigns use polling results to brainstorm which issues to emphasize or which running mates to consider, we thought that content professionals at all levels ought to have access to a similar tool for approximating the relative strength of different marquee package combinations based on typical box office outcomes.

Marquee Stars subsequently received numerous queries with an obvious question: Exactly how reliable is our package calculator?

We do not believe in crystal balls.  And we know that using moving averages that assume a standard deviation to foretell box office outcomes that follow a Pareto distribution is rather like driving a horse-drawn carriage with one square wheel.  Below a certain speed it gets rather wobbly.  Also, given the great volatility of other market factors, typical performance results may or may not offer sufficient consistency for decision makers.

So we decided to test the calculator on an ongoing basis…  Every week or so, Marquee Stars will publish in advance our package calculator’s prognostications for the opening weekend of one or two upcoming theatrical films.  Prognostications differ from a prediction in that they project variable outcomes based on indicators.  They neither promise nor guarantee performance.

Each upcoming film will receive usually two of three possible prognostications:  1) for “mainstream” breadth of appeal (over $38 million final box office gross) or 2) for supercharged “tentpole” films (over $410 million final box office gross), and 3) for “specialty & genre” appeal (under $38 million).   Again, Marquee Stars does not predict how well a film will click with audiences.  Although our prognostications take the form of a box office appraisal, our package calculator is actually designed to anticipate the relative box office strength of a given marquee combination under different performance scenarios.

That’s not quite the same thing:

• Our prognostications generally do not identify which outcome is more likely. We have, however, provided a modified-Pareto chart called “Probable Opening Weekend Grosses for Bellwether Films” that identifies the statistical likelihood of every opening weekend outcome over the previous two years.
• The appropriate prognostication for each film should not be compared directly with the actual box office outcome, although the appraisal number often will be close. Instead, the anticipated box office relationship between the marquee elements of the different films should be compared to their actual relationship.
• The real purpose of the Package Calculator is to war-game the comparative strengths of different marquee combinations.

Posted: February 15, 2010

Korean Language Market

Tidal wave sequence from 'Haeundae' - South Korea's top-grossing film

We have chosen the Korean language circuit for our first market diagnostic.  Underappreciated by most cinephiles in the West, South Korean cinema has entered a period of ascendancy.  Supported by a lucrative local box office, the South Korean film industry has embraced a strong sense of on-camera naturalism, similar in tone to Scandinavian cinema, which in turn has led to better screen stories, inventive story-sensitive directors and many noteworthy actor performances.  In recent years, a few English-speaking South Korean stars have found their way into major Hollywood productions, such as actors Rain in Ninja Assassin and Byung-hun Lee in G.I. Joe, and American-Korean actress Yunjin Kim in ABC-TV’s Lost.

Rain in 'Ninja Assassin'

Byun-hun Lee

(L) Shahrukh Khan and Kajol Devagn star in 'My Name Is Khan'

My Name Is Khan

Director: Karan Johar
Writer: Shibani Bathijia
Producers: Hiroo Yash Johar, Gauri Khan

Stars:

Shahrukh Khan
Kajol Mukheree-Devgan
Christopher B. Duncan

Tri-genre: social/morality romance drama
Story Situation: journey
Satisfaction Rating: above average
Maturity Rating: 13+

Plotline:  High-functioning autistic savant Rizwan (Shahrukh Khan) leaves a Muslim section of Mumbai to live with his brother (Jimmy Shergill) in San Francisco.  He falls in love with Hindu single mom Mandira (Kajol Devgan) and they marry.  But in the aftermath of 9/11, anti-Muslim sentiment puts pressure on the marriage, especially when Rizwan is detained by authorities at LAX who mistake his Asperger’s syndrome for suspicious behavior.  Mandira’s son suddenly becomes a target of abuse because of his step-dad’s arrest.  Mandira leaves Rizwan.  To publically prove his loyalties and win back his wife, Rizwan embarks on a cross-country journey, touching everyone he encounters, in an effort to meet with President Obama (Christopher B. Duncan) and introduce himself with the declaration: “My name is Khan, and I am not a terrorist.”

Comment:  Shahrukh Khan returns to form as India’s biggest box office draw with the highest overseas three-day opening gross for a Bollywood film.

Posted: January 20, 2010

3 Idiots

Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Writer: Abhijit Joshi
Producer: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Stars:

• Aamir Khan
• Kareena Kapoor
• Madavan
• Sharman Joshi

Tri-genre: nostalgic melodramatic comedy
Story Situation: disappearance
Satisfaction Rating: excellent
Maturity Rating: 7+

Plotline: Two buddies (Madavan Rangahathan and Sharman Joshi) decide to go on a quest to find their long lost third buddy (Aamir Khan), a charismatic rebel who transformed their view of life.  As they search for him, they relive their college adventures together, their tyrannical teacher (Boman Irani) and his romance with the spunky Pia (Kareena Kapoor).  They enjoy the situational humor and the touching life lessons of their past until they uncover the riddle of their friend’s disappearance.

Comments:  Highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time, collecting $52 million worldwide in 10 days.

Posted: December 16, 2009

Katrina Kaif and Aksay Kumar

De Dana Dan

Director: Priya Darshan
Writer: Priya Darshan
Producers: Ganesh Jain, Girish Jain
Stars:

Katrina Kaif
Aksay Kumar (Best Actor recipient - Filmfare, International Indian Film Academy)
Sunil Shetty (Best Villain recipient - Filmfare)

Tri-genre: crime situation comedy
Story Situation: heist
Satisfaction Rating: good
Maturity Rating: 7+

Plotline: Two Indian guys in Singapore, Nitin (Akshay Kumar) and Ram (Sunil Shetty), are lucky in love but not in their livelihoods.  They both work low-level jobs.  Nitin is not only poor but deep in debt.  Then their well-heeled girlfriends, Anjali (Katrina Kaif) and Manpreet (Sameera Reddy), deliver an ultimatum: earn enough money to elope or their families will demand that each girl accept an arranged marriage.  Now desperate, the guys come up with a scheme to make fast money.  They will dognap Moolchandji, the pampered pet of ritzy snob Archana (Archana Puran Singh).  Moolchandji runs away.  The police think Nitin has been kidnapped. And just when the guys learn the ransom money is on the way, the plan falls apart as a Tong boss, a hitman, a white collar crime investigator, a showgirl, an ambassador, a frustrated wife, a letch, a drunk and a dead body noboby wants all get in the way.  The film re-teams the comedic trio from Hera Pheri after a 9 year lapse.

Posted: December 8, 2009

Kurbaan

Newlywed Kareena Kapoor suspects husband Saif Ali Khan of being a terrorist

Director(s): Rensil D’Silva
Writer(s): Rensil D’Silva (Best Screenplay recipient - International Indian Film Academy award)
Producer(s): Hiroo Johar, Karan Johar (Best Picture nominee - International Indian Film Academy award)
Star(s):

Kareena Kapoor (Best Actress recipient - International Indian Film Academy/Filmfare awards)
Saif Ali Khan (Best Actor recipient - International Indian Film Academy/National Film/Filmfare awards)

Tri-genre: Conspiracy thriller suspense
Story Situation: suspicion
Satisfaction Rating: good
Maturity Rating: 13+

Plotline: While on sabbatical from her New York teaching job to visit her sick father in Deli, aloof beauty Avantika (Kareena Kapoor) falls in love with local silver-tongued adjunct professor Ehsaan (Saif Ali Khan).  They marry and he accompanies her back to America where they settle into an Indian community.  But when the panicked Indian Muslin daughter-in-law (Nauhee Cyrius) of her neighbor confides that she fears for her life, Avantika slowly begins to suspect that her new husband may be part of a radical terrorist cell.

Yunjin Kim from ABC-TV's 'Lost' stars as an singing inmate in 'Harmony'

Harmony (Hamoni; 하모니)

Moon-hee Na as the convicted college professor

Director: Dae-kyu Kang
Writers: Seung-yeon Lee, Je-gyun Yun
Producers: Nam-su Kim, Je-gyun Yun

Stars:

Yunjin Kim
Moon-hee Na
Ye-won Kang

Tri-genre: prison music drama
Story Situation: mentor
Satisfaction Rating: above average
Maturity Rating: 13+

Plotline: College music professor Moon Ok (Moon-hee Na) has been to women’s prison for murdering her abusive husband and mother-in-law.  She meets fellow inmate Jeong-hye (Yunjin Kim from ABC-TV’s Lost), who killed her husband in self-defense.  Jeong-hye gave birth in prison and now, 18 months later, she must give up her baby for adoption.  Together they form a choir group whose musical performance so touches the prison officials that they allow Jeong-hye to spend one day with her baby outside of prison.

Posted: November 29, 2009

Comedic actors Yeh-jin Park (L) and Chang-jung Lim

• Yeh-jin Park … Tae-rang
• Chang-jung Lim … Seung-won
• Yeong-hie Seo … Ji-hye

Fortune Salon (Cheongdam Bosal, 청담보살)

Yeh-jin Park as clairvoyant to the stars

Supermodel gorgeous, 27-year-old virgin and gifted clairvoyant to the stars Yeh-jin Park has the worst luck in men even though she specializes in helping her celebrity clients find love.  When she was a child, her equally clairvoyant mother told her she would meet her true Mr. Right before she turns 28:  His birthdate will be 11 pm on May 16.  One day, while walking down the street in a ritzy section of Seoul, down-on-his-luck ex-race horse jockey turned parttime stable boy Chang-chung Lim spots a 10,000-won bill ($1.45) and unintentionally throws himself in front of Yeh-jin’s car.  In the aftermath of the accident, Yeh-jin gets Chang-chung to the hospital and offers him a generous cash settlement. Concurrently, she coincidentally reconnects with handsome old boyfriend Jun-hyeok Lee.  Then she learns that scruffy good-for-nothing Chan-chung was born at 11 pm on May 16.

Aleksandr Baluyev stars as a captured Russian pilot in 'Kandahar'

Kandahar (Кандагар)

Director: Andrey Kavun
Writer: Oleg Kavun, Andrey Kavun
Producers: Ilya Nertin, Valeriy Todorovskiy

Stars:

Aleksandr Baluyev
Vladimir Maskov
Andrey Panin
Bogdan Benyuk

Tri-genre: terrorism true-life action
Story Situation: escape
Satisfaction Rating: excellent
Maturity Rating: 13+

Plotline: Afghanistan, 1995. The Taliban captures a Russian IL-76 air freighter together with its entire crew.  After more than a year in captivity, the pilots realize that their only chance for freedom is to hijack their own plane.  Based on true events.

Posted: January 20, 2010

Black Lightning (Черная Молния)

Directors: Aleksandr Voytinskiy, Dmitriy Kiselev
Writers: Dmitri Aleynikov, Aleksandr Talal
Producer: Timur Bekmambetov

Stars:

• Grigoriy Dobrygin
• Yekaterina Vilkova
• Sergei Garmash

Tri-genre: superhero action sci-fi
Story Situation: magic device
Satisfaction Rating: above average
Maturity Rating: 7+

Grigoriy Dobrygin

Plotline:  Construction workers on a Moscow skyscraper discover a Soviet-era underground bunker containing an old rusty Volga sedan.  One of the workers decides to give the car to his son Dima (Grigoriy Dobrygin), a university student, as a birthday gift.  Soon, however, Dima discovers that the car can fly.  Since he can now avoid traffic jams to race across the city, Dima begins to earn good money for rapid deliveries.  He hopes to attract the affections of beautiful Anastasia (Yekaterina Vilkova).  Then, unexpectedly, he finds himself defending the city’s innocents in distress from criminal evildoers.  Dima and his mysterious flying car become revered as “Black Lightning.”

Comment:  Produced by Russia’s premier visual effects director, Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted), this film represents Universal Pictures’ first foray into financing and distributing Russian language films for the Russian theatrical circuits.  They follow Disney’s lead with Book of Masters.  Black Lightning set the record for American-style pre-release promotion: billboard advertising in 60 cities, numerous TV spots on key channels, cross-promotions with retailers, airlines and supermarkets, and a pop hit song on the radio.

Posted: December 8, 2009

Tsar (Царь)

Director(s):  Pavel Lungin (Best Director recipient - Nikita; nominee - César awards)
Writer(s): Aleksei Ivanov
Producer(s):  Pavel Lungin, Olga Vasileva
Star(s):

• Pyotr Mamonov (Best Actor - Nikita award)
• Oleg Yankovskiy (2-time Best Actor - Nikita award)

Tri-genre:  period suspense drama
Story Situation:  house divided
Satisfaction Rating:  above average
Maturity Rating: 13+

Plotline:  Russia, 1565.  In the desperate shadow of the Livonian War against Scandinavia and Poland, Tsar Ivan the Terrible (Pyotr Mamonov) imagines treachery everywhere as he attempts to prepare Russia for Christianity’s Judgment Day.  His guardsmen ruthlessly destroy anyone who might get in his way, thereby imposing Tsar Ivan’s iron will through terror and filling the country with the blood and starvation of innocents.  Only Metropolitan Bishop Philip (the late Oleg Yankovskiy) of the Solovestsky Islands, once a trusted and loyal childhood friend of the Tsar himself, dares to speak out against the monarch’s misguided dictates.  A King Henry-Archbishop Thomas Becket-style showdown quickly ensues.

Comment:  This final screen performance by actor Oleg Yankovskiy metaphorically presages the paranoid Soviet reign of Joseph Stalin where moral justice was sacrificed for delusional altruistic goals.  Upon Yankovskiy’s death from pancreatic cancer, Russian President Vladimir Putin eulogized him as an actor’s actor “sent by God.”

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