and that his wife was pregnant with him when Anton tried to have a spell cast on her (believing, mistakenly, that the father of the child was his wife's lover, not himself). Learning that his own father tried to kill him before he was born turns Yegor – the Other of the prophecy – against Anton and towards Zavulon, which was the latter's plan all along. In helpless rage, Anton strikes Zavulon, while saying in voice over that, although the prophecy has come true and the Dark's victory seems inevitable, he will not give up. Cast Konstantin Khabensky as Anton Gorodetsky Vladimir Menshov as Geser Viktor Verzhbitsky as Zavulon Mariya Poroshina as Svetlana Galina Tyunina as Olga Dmitry Martynov as Yegor Aleksei Chadov as Kostya Saushkin Yuriy "Gosha" Kutsenko as Ignat Rimma Markova as Daria Shultz Maria Mironova as Yegor's mother Valeri Zolotukhin as Gennady Saushkin, Kostya's father Zhanna Friske as Alicia Donnikova Nikolay Olyalin as inquisitor Maksim Ilya Lagutenko as Andrei Aleksei Maklakov as Semyon Aleksander Samoilenko as Ilya Anna Slyu as Katya Anna Dubrovskaya as Larisa Sergei Prikhodko as Pyotr Georgy Dronov as Tolik Igor Savochkin as Maksim Ivanovich Nurzhuman Ikhtymbaev as Zoar Kirill Kleimyonov as himself Production In 2000, an independent Moscow company invited a director from St. Petersburg, Sergei Vinokurov, the script was written by Renata Litvinova. Artemy Troitsky was expected to star in the film as Anton Gorodetsky, and for the role of the light magician Geser Ivan Okhlobystin was chosen. But the work on the film stalled, which was largely in part of the tiny budget of 50 thousand dollars. And then Channel One, the government-owned TV channel, bought from the publisher the rights to adapt the novel and invited Timur Bekmambetov to write and direct the film. Concerning the casting, Bekmambetov described that he needed an actor for the role of Gorodetsky who was handsome, slightly naive, slightly cunning and that "his eyes must show that he has a conscience". Part of the challenge for such a big-budget fantasy film was creating hundreds of visual effects (VFX) shots to which a modern audience is accustomed. 16 Russian VFX studios and several freelancers were used, each chosen for their individual strengths. Many shots were created by different artists across different time zones, using the Internet to share data and images. The film was the first big-budget Russian supernatural movie and one of the first