Some political commentators have suggested however that Putin could change the constitution to allow him to stay on as president for a fifth term past 2024.
According to Fox’s bosses, Hollywood isn’t ready to give screen time to Vladimir Putin, his character has been excised from two upcoming studio projects including Red Sparrow.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul claimed in December that Putin meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in an effort to undermine Democratic candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In the latest example that Hollywood and the USA government are even more similar than assumed, major studios are reportedly concerned with Russian interference.
Fox’s Red Sparrow (March 2) tells the story of a Russian spy (Jennifer Lawrence) wooed by the Central Intelligence Agency to be a double agent.
In his largely glowing 2003 review of the book, New York Times literary critic Charles Cumming acknowledged that Putin had only a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the story-and even called out the Putin cameo as one of the book’s few weaknesses. Although it was initially supposed to take place during the 1970s, a modern setting was chosen to cash in on the whole Russian Federation drama unfolding in the headlines.
A source told Vanity Fair that, in the case of Kursk, the script was altered back in March to focus attention on the heroes of the story rather than confuse matters with political officials. He appeared in the film’s source material, Robert Moore’s bestseller, A Time to Die, and even figured in early versions of the screenplay.
But while Hollywood is willing to feed the public’s hunger for all things Russian Federation, studios will likely continue to play it safe when it comes to depicting the current leadership. The studios are afraid to use the image of Putin in the films because of the threat of possible cyberattacks by Russian hackers. The Russian leader, however, has ruled out the possibility.
Every disaster since then – from the burning television tower that caught fire in Moscow only weeks later, to repeated battle failures in Chechnya and now the downing of a Russian passenger airliner which exploded over the Black Sea last week – has been compared to the Kursk as a symbol of national failure.