Disgusting and frightening as Henry VIII in The Queen’s GameJude Law will this time step into the shoes of this “dictator” for the Frenchman Olivier Assayas.
Jude Law has produced a series of very commercial productions between the saga Fantastic Beasts, his Captain Hook in Peter Pan & Wendyhis appearances at Marvel and obviously his very young Jedi in Skeleton Crew for Star Wars. However, the actor also made much more promising choices by working with Paolo Sorrentino (The Young Pope et The New Pope), Sean Durkin (The Nest), Brady Corbet (Vox Lux), Denis Kelly (la série The Third Day) or Karim Aïnouz (The Queen’s Game).
In this last film, Jude Law played Henry VIII, nicknamed the Ogre King for his appearance but also because he had the unfortunate tendency to kill his wives without much reason. In a rather terrifying performance, he had wonderfully interpreted this sort of historical monster and alongside another great filmmaker, Olivier Assayas, he will tackle another political “monster”.
JUDE VLAWDIMIR POUTINE
Indeed, during an interview with Deadline, Jude Law has confirmed that he will indeed star in the political thriller Le mage du Kremlin. This adaptation of the eponymous novel by Giuliano da Empoli takes place in Russia, in the early 1990s and in the aftermath of the collapse of the USSR. It follows a young artist turned television producer, Vadim Baranov, who will become the “spin doctor” of a promising member of the FSB (ex-KGB), Vladimir Putin. And the current Russian president will therefore be played by Jude Law, barring any surprises:
“I hesitate to say it because I haven’t really started working on it yet. I mean, I’ve done it, but right now it feels like an Everest to climb, so I’m at the base of the climb looking up and going, “Oh my God, why did I accept? » This is often how I feel when I say yes. I was like, “Oh my God, how am I going to do this? » But anyway, it’s up to me to sort this out now. »
Difficult to know exactly why Jude Law, a Brit, was cast as the Russian tyrant/despot/dictator (choose the preferred mention) when the excellent Yuri Borisov (seen in Anora, Compartment No. 6) seemed the ideal man (much closer physically). However, we can imagine that it is not so easy for a Russian actor to want to throw himself into such a role (given the authoritarian tendencies of the man), which could explain this “Anglophonization” of the casting.
Thus, Jude Law joins notably Paul Dano (who will play Baranov), Zach Galifianakis, Tom Sturridge (Sandman) and Alicia Vikander, who played Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife in The Queen’s Game (the loop is therefore closed). For the rest, Olivier Assayas is in charge of the direction and the screenplay, co-written by Emmanuel Carrèrewhose work has long focused on depicting the history of the USSR and then Russia through his literary work (A Russian novel, Limonov) or cinematographic (Return to Kotelnitch).
In any case, given the words of Jude Law, Le Mage du Kremlin is not expected to arrive before 2026. Until then, we can find him this year in the thriller The Order by Justin Kurzel on Prime Video, the survival Eden by Ron Howard or the intriguing series Black Rabbit for Netflix.
