"We are getting ready to shoot a series about Yuri Gagarin. I have already read the script," Sagalayev said at a roundtable in the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian parliament).
Sagalayev's report about the new series was a respond to the proposal of deputy chairman of the State Duma information policy committee Pavel Pozhigailo to adopt a law on budget financing of patriotic films like Martin Scorsese's The Aviator.
The Aviator tells the story of aviation pioneer Howard Hughes (Leonardo di Caprio), the eccentric billionaire industrialist and Hollywood film mogul. Russian experts compared him with Gagarin and criticized the patriotic straightforwardness of American filmmakers.
Pozhigailo said: "Di Caprio's character is smart, adventurous, brave and patriotic. We also must make such movies." He promised to submit a relevant bill by the next State Duma session.
The federal agency for press and mass communications refused to comment on the new TV project about the first cosmonaut saying that no official decision on the distribution of grants in 2005 had been made so far.
Agency's head Mikhail Seslavinsky said earlier that about 470 million rubles were allocated from the 2005 budget on social TV projects. The same amount will be allocated in 2006.
