Roman Vasyanov, whose filmography includes major Hollywood projects (‘Fury’, ‘Suicide Squad’), moved to the United States when he was thirty. Since then, he has worked with movie stars such as Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Will Smith, Til Schweiger, and many others.
Born in 1980 in Moscow, Vasyanov developed an interest in photography from childhood, working alongside his father, and later earned money by shooting for magazines. Eventually, he discovered the profession of cinematography and, at 18, enrolled at VGIK (the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography). At the 24th International VGIK Festival, he received the prize for Best Cinematography for the film Hide and Seek. After that, he went on to shoot commercials for major brands like Puma, Dell, and Pepsi.
Vasyanov’s path to Hollywood happened quite by chance. He shot a commercial for Ridley Scott’s company. According to him, it was a matter of circumstances: he was available at the right moment, and they happened to be looking for a cinematographer. Since he spoke English, everything came together, though he admitted it might just as easily not have happened. Still, he had always wanted to work in America.
How did Roman trade the camera for the director’s chair?
It all started rather simply. While on location for a film that had been temporarily put on hold, Vasyanov found himself in a remote place – a Pacific island with little to do. He thought, “Maybe just for fun, I’ll try writing a script.”
This took place in Hawaii during the production of Triple Frontier starring Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac. Within a month, Vasyanov had written a screenplay set in Sverdlovsk in 1984. The film, based on Alexei Ivanov’s novel Dorm-on-the-Blood, was titled Dorm.
The story centers on the lives of students in a Sverdlovsk dormitory. Freshman Zabela (Gennady Vyrypaev), poet Ivan (Nikita Efremov), hustler Igor (Ilya Malanin), and the young women Nelly (Irina Starshenbaum) and Sveta (Marina Vasilyeva) navigate between inner freedom and dormitory restrictions, sharing both joy and sorrow. But when one of the students commits suicide, their lives change completely.
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So far, Dorm remains Roman Vasyanov’s only directorial project. He has said that he does not actively pursue directing, but would be ready to return to it if he comes across a story that truly inspires him.
