The film adaptation of Giuliano da Empoli’s geopolitical thriller, Grand Prix du roman de l’Académie française 2022, which follows the rise of a young television producer who became image advisor to the Russian president in the 1990s, is expected to be released in 2026.
After playing Henry VIII in The Queen’s Game , Jude Law takes on a modern-day autocrat. The star of the Christmas romantic comedy, The Holiday, will lend his features to Vladimir Putin, in the next film by French director Olivier Assayas entitled Le Mage du Kremlin, reports the actor in an interview with Deadline , Thursday January 9.
“I hesitate to say it because I haven’t really started working on my role yet. Or rather yes, I started, but for the moment it feels like an Everest to climb, and I’m at the foot of the mountain and I say to myself: “Oh my God, why did I accept ?»»revealed the 52-year-old actor, who also wonders how he is doing « succeed in understanding this contemporary historical character”. But Jude Law can no longer turn back. « It’s up to me to find the right incarnation.” he said.
Adapted from the book by Giuliano da Empoli which won the Grand Prix du roman of the French Academy in 2022, Le Mage du Kremlin takes place in Russia in the aftermath of the collapse of the USSR, where we follow Vadim Baranov, a young artist turned television producer who will become the image advisor to a promising member of the FSB (ex-KGB), Vladimir Putin.
The novel is based on numerous historical facts, such as the second Chechen war, the 2000 Russian presidential election, the sinking of the K-141 Koursk or the Orange Revolution in 2004. The story also incorporates other personalities who really existed such as the businessmen Boris Berezovsky and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the politicians Igor Sechine and Édouard Limonov or the former president of the United States, Bill Clinton.
A screenplay co-written by Emmanuel Carrère
Jude Law will star alongside Alicia Vikander (Tomb Raider), by Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, The Fabelmans), Zach Galifianakis (Very Bad Trip),Tom Sturridge (Adorable Julia) et Jeffrey Wright (The Batman). But we will still have to wait until 2026 before seeing this film, the screenplay of which was co-written by Emmanuel Carrère. A project which promises to be ambitious in any case according to Olivier Assayas. For Variety in May, he agreed to make a comment which presupposed that his film would be like the novel, a geopolitical thriller: “Beyond the passions of the men who navigate the dangerous flows of modern politics, above all we see the opportunity to make a very promising historical film. There’s drama, there’s action…it’s about trying to make sense of the chaos that is transforming our world in the strangest and most disturbing ways.”
