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.”