Cosmo Jarvis, star of FX’s smash hit series “Shōgun,” will star as future Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in “Young Stalin.” Georgian-French helmer Géla Babluani (“13 Tzameti,” “Money”) has signed on to direct the period thriller that is being financed by
Len Blavatnik‘s
Access Entertainment, which backed Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winning Holocaust film “The Zone of Interest” and last year’s “Conclave.”
Based
on the acclaimed bestseller by Simon Sebag Montefiore, “Young Stalin” charts the early days of the Soviet strongman when he was a bank-robbing gangster in pre-revolutionary Russia. Babluani and Sebag Montefiore wrote the screenplay for the film that is also being backed by AI Film and Monte Rosso Prods.
Set against the backdrop of Imperial Russia’s criminal underworld and revolutionary ferment, the film explores the making of the bloody dictator who would reshape the 20th century through terror, war and ideology — and the largest bank heist in Russian history, according to the logline.
variety.com
