Glorious heroes: Soyuzmultfilm will release a sequel to "Umki", "Nu, pogodi!" and "Prostokvashino"

After the news appeared about the state's privatization of the Soyuzmultfilm film studio and the sale of a stake in Sberbank, the company's employees gathered for a meeting, a source told Izvestia. The management said that the changes would not affect the studio's work, no "belt tightening" was expected, but they would not raise salaries either. Moreover, in the coming years Soyuzmultfilm will release several major projects, most of which are based on Soviet classics. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.

Paddington-style Matroskin

On January 1, 2026, the film Prostokvashino, directed by Sarik Andreasyan, will be released in Russia. A year later, according to Izvestia, viewers will see the continuation of the story under the working title "Prostokvashino 2: Uncle Fyodor, the dog and the cat." In the new version of the famous novel by Eduard Uspensky, Roman Pankov will play the role of a boy, Elizaveta Moryak will play Uncle Fyodor's mother, Pavel Priluchny will play his father, and Ivan Okhlobystin will play the postman. Matroskin the cat will be voiced again by Anton Tabakov, who picked up the baton from his father and since 2018 has become the official voice of the hero in the continuation of the Prostokvashino animated film series.

In addition, Soyuzmultfilm continues to work on a full-length film about the youth of Matroskin the cat, which is conceived as a prequel to the main events. Back in 2023, Izvestia was the first to write about the studio's plans. Oleg Malovichko, known for the films "Attraction", "Ice", "Highway", as well as for the TV series "Dashing" and "Method", is responsible for the script. The action of the film will focus on the events before the meeting with Uncle Fyodor, Sharik and the postman Pechkin.

The audience will learn how Matroskin learned to speak, found a home, met a professor and formed his unique philosophy of life. According to the authors, Matroskin will be made according to the Paddington bear principle. He walks on his hind legs, is fully clothed, and participates in the lives of the people he encounters. Earlier it was reported that the film will be released in 2027, but the source of Izvestia announced a new date — 2028. The painting is declared as a product of Soyuzmultfilm's own production.

The changes in the release also affected the feature film "Nu, Pogodi!" Earlier it was reported that viewers will see the picture in 2028, however, according to Izvestia, the first part will appear in cinemas in 2027, and the sequel in the next.

The film about Umka got a different release date.

The second part will also feature the family film "Umka", which was originally announced for release on December 3, 2026. According to new information, the film will be released in cinemas in 2027, and the continuation of the story about the boy Taike and the bear Umku will be released in 2028. The main roles are played by 12-year-old Yaroslav Matveev, Marina Kravets and Pavel Priluchny.

— Kinopoisk made erroneous adjustments, and some publications stole information from there. The information about 2026 is not true. The premiere will take place on December 3, 2027," Daria Darinova, PR manager at 1-2-3 production, confirmed to Izvestia.

According to her, at the moment the creators are actively working on postproduction of the first part and are not yet ready to disclose the details of the next film.

Another famous character will get a movie version. We are talking about the character of Alan Milne and Boris Zakhoder Winnie the Pooh. Soyuzmultfilm, together with the distributor Nashe Kino, are planning two parts of an animated adventure comedy at once. The director of the first film is Vasily Rovensky, starring Andrei Leonov, Viktor Khorinyak, Milos Bikovic, Diana Pozharskaya and Sofia Petrova. Both films are announced in the plan for 2027.

The Izvestia source also reported that the first picture from the future media franchise based on the original universe of Russian superheroes will be released in 2028. The project has the working title "Scarlet Star". Earlier it was known that science fiction writers Sergey Lukyanenko and Sergey Volkov are working on the project. They drew some images from the works of Alexander Belyaev and Alexei Tolstoy. Among the characters will be not only heroes of epics and legends, but also famous Russian scientists, including Siberian researcher Semyon Dezhnev, engineer Garin from Tolstoy's novel and Ichthyander from Belyaev's book Amphibian Man.

There are six more projects under discussion: "Kesha's Parrot", "Boniface", "Dunno", "Once upon a time there was a dog", "Puck! The puck!" and "Vovka is in a Faraway kingdom." Soyuzmultfilm will co-produce the last two projects from the list with the Andreasyan brothers company. And film versions of Kesha the parrot and Boniface the lion are scheduled for 2027.

Meanwhile, during the day, TASS and RBC deleted information about Sberbank's purchase of Soyuzmultfilm. Although earlier it was RBC that announced the privatization of the film studio by the state and the subsequent control of shares by the bank. According to media reports, 1,118 billion rubles were transferred to the federal budget as part of the deal. In their publications, the journalists referred to the press service of the Ministry of Finance. However, later RBC completely deleted the news, and TASS edited the material.

"Since this transaction contains information of limited access and is non—public, we cannot disclose its details," Soyuzmultfilm film studio commented to Izvestia.

Izvestia sent inquiries to Sberbank and the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, but received no response.