Jude Law Embodies Vladimir Putin in First Look at New Biopic

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