With the war coming to Moscow, Eisenstein was one of many filmmakers evacuated to Alma-Ata. There is where he first considered the idea of making a movie about Czar Ivan IV. Eisenstein wrote letters to Prokofiev from Alma-Ata. Prokofiev joined him there in 1942. Prokofiev composed the score for Eisenstein's movie. Eisenstein designed sets for an opera version of "War and Peace" that Prokofiev was creating.