'Shogun' star Cosmo Jarvis to headline 'Young Stalin' biopic

Actor Cosmo Jarvis, best known for playing John Blackthorne in the multiple Emmy winning series "Shogun", will play Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in "Young Stalin". According to Variety, the film will be directed by Georgian-French filmmaker Gela Babluani. Billed as a period thriller, "Young Stalin" is being financed by Len Blavatnik's Access Entertainment, which backed Oscar-winning Holocaust film "The Zone of Interest" and last year's "Conclave". The movie is based on the acclaimed bestseller "Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar" by Simon Sebag Montefiore. "Young Stalin" will chronicle the early days of the Soviet leader when he was a bank-robbing gangster in pre-revolutionary Russia. "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. Babluani and Sebag Montefiore have co-written the screenplay for the film that is also being backed by AI Film and Monte Rosso Prods. Principal photography is set to begin in Tbilisi, Georgia in July. Jarvis will next be seen in Guy Ritchie's film "Wife & Dog".