Who Plays Putin In This Wild-Looking Bipoic? (You Might Not Believe It)

A brand new trailer for a biopic detailing the life of Vladimir Putin has debuted, and thousands of images of the Russian president processed with artificial intelligence are being used to tell the partially true story. For the upcoming film "Putin," director Patryk Vega, aka Besaleel, has used AI to help create both Putin and former American president Bill Clinton in his first English-language feature film.

The "Putin" trailer's debut checks all the relevant boxes that are needed from a biopic, starting with introducing the audience to one of the most powerful leaders of the world in his boyhood. As it follows the future Russian leader's upbringing leading into his time as an intelligence officer, Vega's story applies artificial intelligence-powered CG to create Putin, highlighting key points in his life, including the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Actual actors are used to depict Putin in his younger years, while a Polish actor fills the role in his later years, where the digital overlay is applied.

The film is set to debut at the 53rd Kyiv International Film Festival in Ukraine between October 26 and November 3, 2024, before being released in theaters on January 10, 2025. What might spark interest about the project besides its subject matter is that it merges fact with fiction, as the synopsis accompanying the trailer describes the movie as detailing "Vladimir Putin's meteoric rise and devastating fall."

Besides the unavoidable elements of war and political dominance of his country, the "Putin" trailer also highlights the creative efforts of director Patryk Vega. The director's depiction of the Russian leader's life doesn't appear to hold back. Besides sequences displaying bombings and assassinations, the film also shows Putin in the fetal position and "erasing" his ex-wife, Lyudmila Aleksandrovna, from the history books.

While there's undoubtedly been a stunning evolution in AI in film in recent years, it's typically been used for fan-made trailers, many of which are regularly released on YouTube, from 1950s "Robocop" to a live-action version of "The Simpsons." Vega's use of it to tell a fictionalized story of Putin in a wide-release film may end up being a huge leap in filmmaking. The movie's creators certainly seem to believe this to be the case, saying that the film "stands as a symbolic support for the resilience of Ukrainian cinema and the determination of artists to bring vital, challenging stories to the world. Putin also serves as an artistic protest against both the Russian leader and the war in Ukraine."