Russian billionaire and president of gaming operator Ritzio International Oleg Boyko is set to produce Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut, a film adaptation of Truman Capote's novel "Summer Crossing."
Boyko will work alongside Aldamisa co-chairman Sergei Bespalov and oscar-winner Barry Spikings, with production set to start in the first half of 2014, Vedomosti reported.
It will be the second film he has produced, having already worked with Bespalov and Alexander Rodniansky on "Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For 3D," which will be released in theaters in autumn 2013.
The film's has budget not been announced, but for the first "Sin City" movie it was over $40 million.
So far, Boyko has invested "tens of millions of dollars," but it is "only the beginning," Boyko said.
Capote never actually published "Summer Crossing." He threw the manuscript in the trash but a janitor in his building discovered it. The pages then resurfaced in a 2004 auction and the book was published in 2006.
In the early 1990s Boyko founded National Credit bank and concern Olbi, but most of the group's assets were restructured and sold during the 1995 banking crisis. A year later, the entrepreneur fell and fractured his spine, leaving him wheelchair-bound.
In 1998 he founded what is now Evraz, Russia's largest steel producer, before selling his 20 percent share, which analysts estimated at $ 600-700 million. In 2002 he established and later became president of the Ritzio Entertainment Group.
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