Putin removed from two forthcoming movies over hacking retaliation fears
Vladimir Putin was set to appear as a character in two forthcoming Hollywood thrillers… but not anymore.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, both movies have re-worked the stories so that the Russian premier no longer features, over fears about retaliatory hacking.
It’s said that the studios involved are ‘steering clear of any Russian hackers who might protest’.
One of the movies is said to be ‘Red Sparrow’, made by Fox and set to star Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role.
The movie is based on the novel of the same name by former CIA agent Jason Matthews, about a Russian operative who starts working for the CIA as a double agent.
The movie initially featured Putin in ‘a key role’, as he is in the book, but the action was moved from modern day Russia to 1970s Budapest when the book was optioned in 2013.
However, the setting has since been restored to modern day Russia, but now without Putin featuring as a character.
The second movie is the forthcoming ‘Kursk’, about the Russian nuclear submarine which sank in the Barents Sea in 2000, killing all 118 sailors on board.
Putin was on holiday in Sochi on the Black Sea at the time of the tragedy, and came under heavy criticism for not cutting his trip short.
Made by Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp, it also omits Putin from the action.
“For a studio to release a movie about Putin that makes him look like a fool would be suicide,” Ajay Arora, CEO of security firm Vera, a company which works with studios, told THR.
“That’s a certain way to be targeted [for retaliation].”
Not all movies are shying away from such subject matter, however.
Wonder Woman is said to be travelling back in time to fight the Soviets in the planned sequel, while Sylvester Stallone appeared to be teasing the involvement of Ivan Drago, the Russian boxer who killed Apollo Creed in ‘Rocky IV’, for ‘Creed II’.
‘The Girl In The Spiders Web’, meanwhile, will see ‘Dragon Tattoo’ heroine Lisbeth Sander embroiled in Russian hacking when the series returns to the big screen.
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