Richard Linklater returned to form as a critical darling with "A Scanner Darkly" (released in the same year), 2009's "Me and Orson Welles" garnering an 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and 2012's "Bernie" receiving a 91% rating. In 2014 he released a film in the making for 12 years titled "Boyhood", which received overwhelming critical acclaim. His daughter Lorelei Linklater co-stars in the film as the sister of the central character. For a while Linklater was attached to direct a remake of "The Incredible Mr. Limpet" for Warner Brothers. In 2014, however, he dropped the project in favor of working on a
Viy (2014 film) Bulba" film from 2009 and "The Witch" from 2006. In order to secure the title, they needed without any further delay to release the information on the forthcoming project. In the course of three days, they filmed a teaser trailer where the role of Khoma Brutus was played by Petrukhin himself. Only after that did the active production of the film begin. When the teaser was shown in theaters, the script was not yet written and the actors were not cast. The story kept growing and changing until it turned from a simple screen version into a big-budget fantasy thriller.