After breaking out in the epic and award-winning samurai series “Shōgun” and appearing in the Iraq War film “Warfare,” actor Cosmo Jarvis is having a serious moment. He’s now been tapped to play a younger version of Joseph Stalin, the infamous Soviet Union dicator, who oversaw the country with an ironfist before, during, and after World War II and helped the Allies defeat the Nazis (who attempted an ill-advised invasion of Russian territory).
The new biopic (via Variety) is based on the Simon Sebag Montefiore novel of the same name. It is said to be taking a different angle on the life of Stalin, as it “charts the early days of the Soviet strongman when he was a bank-robbing gangster in pre-revolutionary Russia.”
Géla Babluani (“13 Tzameti,” “Money”) is set to direct and co-wrote the script with Sebag Montefiore. “Young Stalin” also boasts some impressive producers with Len Blavatnik’s Access Entertainment financing the pic, which previously backed Jonathan Glazer’s Holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest” and Edward Berger’s Vatican thriller “Conclave.”
We’ll see Stalin’s origins within the Russian criminal underworld, which could help explain the authoritarian’s use of brutal violence and murder to keep not only his power but also put the entire population of the Soviet Union in perpetual fear.
Upgrade oversees international sales at the Cannes Film Market with filming to begin in Tbilisi, Georgia, in July. AI Film and Monte Rosso Prods are also part of the project.
A logline of the original novel via Amazon:
Based on ten years of research, “Young Stalin” is a brilliant prehistory of the USSR, a chronicle of the Revolution, and an intimate biography. Montefiore tells the story of a charismatic, darkly turbulent boy born into poverty, scarred by his upbringing but possessed of unusual talents. Admired as a romantic poet and trained as a priest, he found his true mission as a murderous revolutionary. Here is the dramatic story of his friendships and hatreds, his many love affairs, his complicated relationship with the Tsarist secret police, and how he became the merciless politician who shaped the Soviet Empire in his own brutal image.
Jarvis recently took a supporting role in Christopher Nolan’s Greek epic “The Odyssey” and is officially set to begin shooting the second season of “Shōgun” in Vancouver early next year.
Oddly enough, one of the more accurate portrayals of the ruthlessness of Stalin and his inner circle was seen in the British dark comedy “The Death of Stalin,” which comedically attempts to explore the jockeying for power once the dictator dies and absurdity surrounding the way they operated through the fear of executions, torture, “re-eduction,” forced military service, entire families being disappeared, and gulags.
Next, the big step will be filling out the supporting cast opposite Jarvis.
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
