MOVIES - Jan. 26, 1989

Soviet-American Filmproduction, a new Soviet-American film production company, has received formal approval to work inside the Soviet Union and will start shooting its first feature there in August. It will be a true-life story titled “Courage,” about a KGB agent’s investigation into the torture-murder of a Soviet soldier for his Christian beliefs, says Chuck Warn, who will co-produce. Executive producer is Howard Kazanjian, who produced “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The film will star Americans in lead roles and Soviets in supporting roles. Also involved in the project are Rustam Ibragimbekov, the secretary of the Soviet Filmmaker’s Union and, in the United States, producers Yakov Bronstein and Sasha Schneider, a Soviet emigre who was a producer on “Hill Street Blues.”