Missing and...?

• email this story
• read comments (8)
• post a comment
• 
  
  

Russian businessman and movie financier Leonid Rozhetskin, 41, who allegedly covered the shooting costs of Hamlet 2 single-handedly, may have been killed, according to a 3.26 Moscow Times story by Max Delany.

Leonid Rozhetskin

Hamlet 2 played at last January's Sundance Film Festival and will be released by Focus Features on 8.22. Rozhetskin also produced Duncan Ward and Danny Monahan's Boogie Woogie, a possible '08 release.

A friend of George Hickenlooper's and, one gathers, an associate of Hamlet 2 producers Eric Eisner, Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger, Rozhetskin has been missing since 3.16 and is feared dead, as blood traces have been found at his luxury villa in Jurmala, a resort town not far from Riga.

Every now and then a high-flying businessman gets offed, but it's an infrequent occurence on these shores. The last one with Hollywood ties who got clipped, I think, was Roy Radin. Russia is known to be a very rough place, of course, with the Russian mob and all, but nobody knows what happened so let it lay for now.

Hamlet 2 will be released by Focus Features on 8.22. Rozhetskin also produced Duncan Ward and Danny Monahan's Boogie Woogie, a possible '08 release.

Rozhetskin "was a Russian billionaire who spent a lot of time financing films in Los Angeles," Hickenlooper told me this morning. "He put up the entire budget for Hamlet 2. I got to know Leonid well and at times played squash with him in Westwood. He was at one point going to finance a project of mine. This is sad and shocking news."

comment #1

BurmaShave says ...

Yes yes, Russian mob, indeed, indeed.

comment #2

Mikeb says ...

Anytime a financier dies it's a horrible thing.

comment #3

mutinyco says ...

You'd think a billionaire could afford a higher quality barber...

comment #4

lazespud says ...

To Hickenlooper:

George; we know you're reading this.. any additional thoughts you want to offer? Despite the jokes of the people above, I think it's awful when someone dies, especially if they're murdered.

Did you have a sense that he was "a marked man?" Did you ever get a sense of where he got his money? What kind of security detail did he carry in Hollywood?

comment #5

Hickenlooper says ...

Lazespud, that you for your sensitivity. Leonid was a very unique guy. He was a gentleman too. And I speak about him in the past tense assuming the worst, but praying that he in fact might have faked his death and is living happily and peacefully somewhere in obscurity. But I fear this is not the case. As my good friend Carsten Lorenz pointed out, Leonid loved people, loved films, and loved the limelight. To runaway was totally not in his character. And I remember when those trumped up, bogus criminal charges were levied at him by the Putin regime, it didn't seem to phase him. As a Russian billionaire he was an outspoken critic of Putin and it was brave for him to do that, considering his position. I really doubt he would hide, particularly from someone like Putin.

In the two years I was friends with Leonid, I knew him as a charming, witty bon vivant. He loved dining at Ago and playing squash at the racquet club in Westwood. He loved to talk about film and he had a great taste in material. He was a Harvard educated gentleman who saw the bigger picture. His choice to finance 'Hamlet 2' was a good one. He was extremely pleased when it did well at Sundance.

Most importantly, I will just remember him as a great guy. When my film 'Factory Girl' premiered in NYC he generously offered to fly me and my friends on his private jet. He came to the premiere and we had a wonderful time together. I don't know what more I can say. The more I write, the sadder I get. I will really miss him. My prayers are with him and his family and friends.

comment #6

nemo says ...

I remember sitting in a Starbucks knock-off in a fancy part of Moscow a few years ago watching two well-dressed women in their 40s chatting over lattes. Well, not watching them as much as their company, two large men around 30 in business suits who sat at a neighboring table, not talking at all, but constantly sweeping their eyes across the room, back and forth, back and forth.

When the two rich women got up to leave, the two bodyguards rose to their feet. Each of the bodyguards inserted his right hand into his jacket. One of them went out the door first, spent a good 10 seconds looking up and down the street, then quietly motioned the two women to come out.

The other bodyguard followed the two women, backing out the door so he could face the room, his eyes scanning back and forth the whole time.

They proceeded up the street, the two rich women chatting casually, the lead bodyguard walking 3 paces ahead, scanning the street ahead and to the side, the trailing bodyguard walking 3 paces behind, frequently turning around to scan the street behind and to the side.

If you stick out too much in Russia, because you're rich, or because you're a critic of the Kremlin or the crime lords, you are a target. If you are rich and a critic, you are doubly a target.

comment #7

nemo says ...

By a the word critic, I include brave journalists such as Anna Politkovskaya and countless others who have been murdered over the past few years, with no serious attempt by the authorities to investigate and seek justice.

Russia is a great country with a terrible past and an only slightly better present. I've spent a fair amount of time in New York, London, Paris, and Brussels, and I've never seen a bodyguard situation like that anywhere but in Russia. Private security is all over the place in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The US and Western Europe have their problems, but nothing like the kind of Capone-style wholesale murder that is commonplace in Russia.

comment #8

christian says ...

But Bush looked into Putin's eyes and saw his soul. I always loved McCain's retort: I looked into his eyes and saw the KGB.

Sorry to hear about this.

Post a Comment