At the end of February 2024, the Russian media and social networks reported that Paramount Pictures and Kvartal-95 studios were working on the blockbuster “The Price of Victory” about the life path of the President of Ukraine. A poster and part of the film’s script have allegedly already been published on the Internet. We checked whether such a film project is really being prepared.
According to numerous publications in RuNet, the Hollywood studio Paramount Pictures will soon begin work on the film “The Price of Victory,” which will be dedicated to the life path of Vladimir Zelensky - “from comedian to president.” The film, worth $115 million, will allegedly be financed by the Ukrainian film company Kvartal-95, one of the founders of which was Zelensky himself. Also reported, that the social network X has already published excerpts of the script and concept art of the poster for the upcoming film. The director of the film will allegedly be James Mangold, known for the films “Logan” and “Ford v Ferrari”, and the performer of the role of Zelensky is unknown. According to posts, some X users suggest casting Jeremy Renner or Sean Penn in the lead role. “It remains unclear whether this film is another attempt to refine the scandalous image of the President of Ukraine? Well, the main question: how did the leadership of Ukraine, constantly demanding new tranches of financial and military assistance from the United States and the EU, find $115 million to film a film about Zelensky?” — writes the Telegram channel “Russia now"(208,000 views at the time of writing this analysis). Similar posts appeared in Telegram channels “The world of Mikhail Onufrienko"(291,000 views), "Ne.Sugar"(249,000), "Observer" (176,000), "Sheikh Tamir"(140,000), "Putin on Telegram"(139,000), "Brecotin"(138,000), "Scott Ritter on Telegram"(78,000), "Radio Shydoba"(71,000), "Voice of Mordor"(56,000), Neues aus Russland Alina Lipp (44,000), "Coachman" (30,000) and "Olesya Loseva"(14,000).
In early March, reports appeared that Hollywood stars Chuck Norris and Dolph Lundgren approached the President of Ukraine and thanked him for financing such a film. Telegram channels wrote about this “Russia now"(217,000 views), "Putin on Telegram" (153,000), "Ukraine.ru" (128,000), "Voice of Mordor"(111,000) and Nina Vatt (40,000). In addition, news about a film about Zelensky is found in the media (EADaily, "Notebook", "Morning south"and others newssites), to "Peekaboo" And YouTube, V "Zene", LiveJournal, social networks X and VKontakte (examples here, here And here).
The authors of most of the above publications refer to an article from the New York News Daily website, which appeared February 28, 2024. In the source material, in addition to the details given on the RuNet about the budget, director and studios, there are some other important details. Thus, the publication reports that the script is being written by a Ukrainian filmmaker Andrey Yakovlev (“Servant of the People”, “Matchmakers”), and the negotiations between Paramount Pictures and “Kvartal-95” were led by the producer Alexander Rodnyansky (“Leviathan”, “Lovelessness”).
New York News Daily, in turn, refers to the words of Brian Wilson, who allegedly works as an associate producer at Paramount Pictures. “His revelations shed light on a scenario that chronicles key moments in Zelensky’s political career, including his election campaign and discussions with military advisers amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine,” the website says.
So, first “Verified” studied website New York News Daily and concluded that it was a fake publication. Firstly, we were unable to find any information about this supposedly American media outlet, and the website does not list social media accounts. In the section "About Us" it is stated that the publication appeared in 1975, although the domain was registered only January 18, 2024 later 19 minutes after the creation of the Chicago Chronicle website - a fake publication, used to spread misinformation about testing the dangerous Pfizer vaccine on Ukrainian children. Moreover, the sites nynewsdaily.org and the now defunct chicagochron.com have identical interfaces and errors: some of the tabs from the menu do not work (for example, “Work with us”, “Advertising” and “Terms of Use”), there are Russian-language headers, in the section "Contacts» have the same email addresses, photos and text placeholders in Latin, and the logos in the site headers are different from what is presented in the menu, where both resources are called The World Times. Moreover, in description website, the name New York News Daily is misspelled many times: New York News Daily.
Now let's look at the X-account of film producer Brian Wilson, where on February 27, 2024 took place announcement of the proposed film about Zelensky. The platform states that profile was created back in April 2010, with only 85 tweets, and posts published before the announcement of the blockbuster about the President of Ukraine are reposts made in February 2024. In addition, Verified could not find any information about a producer with that name, and his avatar in X is a mirrored photo famous Venezuelan doctor Henry Garcia.
Fake Producer named upcoming blockbuster, "possibly the greatest film of the next decade" thanked Alexander Rodnyansky for cooperation, and also shared concept art poster and a photo of three pages scripts: 76-77 (the scene in which Zelensky came to the evening talk show) and 295 (Zelensky’s conversation with Valery - probably Zaluzhny). Anyone could create such materials.
On March 1, the fake producer shared two video messages from Hollywood actors: Chuck Norris (12 sec.) and Dolph Lundgren (18 sec.). The publications note the official X-account of Vladimir Zelensky and claim that the stars thank the Ukrainian president and the Kvartal 95 studio for creating the blockbuster. However, none of them mentions the name of the person they are addressing, and the videos contain cuts.
Previously “Checked” a dozen times wrote about fakes, which were based on videos purchased through the Cameo service, where everyone can order a short video greeting from many stars. On this platform are presented as Norris, so Lundgren, whose appeals cost $450 and $350 respectively. Moreover, many of their videos recorded in almost the same clothes and in the same locations as during the appeals supposedly to Zelensky. At the time of publication of this analysis both roller blocked on social network X due to complaints from the copyright holder.
$115 million is an impressive budget for a biographical film, even by Hollywood standards, but not a single reputable foreign film publication has written about this project about Zelensky. The announcement of this film is also missing on the resources of Paramount Pictures and Kvartal-95. The film about the President of Ukraine is not listed among future works in profiles Andrey Yakovlev And James Mangold on the IMDb website. Moreover, Paramount studio has already released short propaganda film entitled "The Price of Victory" in 1942.
“Verified” asked for comment on the news about the supposedly upcoming film by Alexander Rodnyansky, which is mentioned more than once in the original source. The producer said that this whole story is fake.
“I would not be at all surprised if I learned that one of the largest Hollywood studios is making a film about Zelensky, who turned into the most prominent world politician during Ukraine’s bloody war for his existence. But the nature of this “news” and the mention of “Ukrainian financing” of the film indicate that this is a fake. Its authors once again want to prove to Ukrainians that President Zelensky and his team are more concerned with creating his “bright image” than fighting the aggressor. In English there is a very precise expression - smear campaign ("smear campaign." - Ed.). I believe it more accurately describes the fake news being spread than the neutral expression “discredit campaign.”
Any film professional understands the fakeness of this news. An inflated budget figure, the name of one of the most sought-after directors in Hollywood, who right now is working on four new projects at once, one of which is a film in the Star Wars universe, the mention of my name in the context of the production of the film, all this is a complete lie. Nothing new for Russian propaganda.”
Thus, the Paramount Pictures studio is not preparing a film about Zelensky with a budget of $115 million. The authors of this fake created a fake website disguised as an American media outlet and created a fake account for a non-existent Hollywood producer to announce a fake project. Also, unknown people ordered two videos from stars for $800 and passed them off as appeals to Zelensky.
Cover photo: social networks
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