Jude Law’s portrayal of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the upcoming biopic The Wizard of the Kremlin is praised as “very believable” by the film’s director Olivier Assayas. The French filmmaker told Variety that Law “completely transformed and reinvented” Putin, adding that he was amazed at how much Law invested to understand the “ins and outs” of Putin—“both the worst and the less worst.” Law’s Putin stars opposite Paul Dano as the fictional Vadim Baranov, an artist turned-reality TV producer turned-Putin spin doctor inspired by the real-life politico Vladislav Sourkov. Set in the early 1990s, the comedic thriller comes full circle years later as Baranov looks back on the post-Soviet system of control and cruelness he helped architect alongside Putin, according to the film’s longline from producer Gaumont. Alicia Vikander, as Baranov’s on-and-off lover, Jeffrey Wright, as an American author, also star alongside Dano and Law, who looks every bit Putin-esque in one of the first few stills from the project. Based on Giuliano da Empoli’s 2022 bestselling novel of the same name, The Wizard of the Kremlin will premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
