Jude Law will take on Putin for The Wizard Of The Kremlin
Jude Law confirmed he'll be playing Vladimir Putin in upcoming Olivier Assayas film The Wizard Of The Kremlin
Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney
We’ll say this for Jude Law: The man doesn’t seem to get especially intimidated when picking roles. Having previously thrown himself into the parts of New Popes, Young Dumbledores, and the erstwhile leader of the Space Fratellis, Law has now signed on for what might be the single most intimidating role of his career: Real-life extremely scary person Vladimir Putin.
This is per Deadline, adding details to earlier casting news announcing that Law would be appearing in Olivier Assayas’ upcoming film The Wizard Of The Kremlin, an adaptation of Giuliano da Empoli’s 2022 novel of the same name. The novel tells of a fictitious meeting between its author and a (fake) Putin insider named Vadim Baranov, who recounts how he helped the former KGB officer establish his stranglehold on Russian politics. Paul Dano is set to play Baranov, and everyone sort of assumed Law would be Putin, if only because it’s hard to imagine another actor having the chutzpah to take on the role of a man who, to put it mildly, does not seem to have an especially well-developed sense of humor when it comes to people mocking or challenging him. But Law has now confirmed it (as part of a longer conversation about his new Henry VIII movie Firebrand) that he’s taking on the part of the infamous strongman—and he’s kind of scared by it.
“I say that hesitatingly because I haven’t really started work on it yet,” Law told Deadline. “I mean, I have, but at the moment it looks like an Everest to climb, so I’m in the foothills looking up thinking, ’Oh Christ, what have I said?’ That’s often how I feel whilst I say yes. I was going, ’Oh God, how am I going to do this?’ But anyway, that’s for me to sort out.”