Jude Law will play Vladimir Putin in Olivier Assayas’ new film titled “The Wizard of Kremlin,” as revealed in an interview with Deadline.
The movie will depict Putin, currently 72 years old, “at the beginning of his political career,” according to the agency.
“I say this with hesitation because I haven’t really started working on it yet. I mean, I have started, but right now it feels like Everest that I need to climb, so I’m standing at the base of the mountain, looking up, thinking, ‘Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into?’” the British star said, confirming his participation in the film.
“That’s usually how I feel when I say ‘yes.’ I think, ‘How am I going to do this?’ But anyway, that’s something I’ll have to figure out,” he added.
Joining Law in “The Wizard of Kremlin” are Paul Dano, Alicia Vikander, Zach Galifianakis, and Tom Sturridge.
According to Variety, the new film production, which was first announced at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Giuliano da Empoli, published in France in 2022, two months after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war.
The screenplay, written by French director Olivier Assayas and Emmanuel Carrère, is set in the early 1990s, after the collapse of the USSR, and follows a young filmmaker (played by Paul Dano) who “unexpectedly becomes Putin’s advisor as he rises to power in post-Soviet Russia.”
According to the synopsis, TV producer and director Vadim Baranov, while “working at the heart of Russian power, blends truth with lies, news with propaganda, and orchestrates the entire society like a grand reality show.”
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