The director of a biopic on Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russian spies attempted to interfere in the making of the film. Speaking to The Telegraph, Patryk Vega said he and his crew were bombarded by messages from people posing as US political advisors and Ukrainian film executives. Titled 'Putin', the film extensively uses artificial intelligence (AI) to portray the Russian leader on screen. He has been put in some compromising situations, including a shot where Mr Putin appears in diapers.
Watch the trailer:
Authorities in Russia wanted details about the film and Mr Vega said that he was offered hundreds of thousands of dollars to hand over a copy of the script.
"I had a really funny experience with Russian intelligence, just before the first release of the trailer. They took from LinkedIn whole numbers of mobile phones for my crew," Mr Vega told The Telegraph.
"They started messaging these people, for example saying things like, 'I am an assistant to a congressman from South Dakota, I hear you made this film. My boss would like to pay $100,000 for a screening of this movie, and also for a script'," he further said.
Using AI, a deepfake facial image of Mr Putin has been planted on the body of an actor. In one of the scenes at the starting of the film, Mr Putin is seen on a hospital floor, wearing diapers, having apparently soiled his bed.
In other scenes, he is seen half naked during an affair in his office at the Kremlin in Moscow.
The messages started in the build-up to the Russian elections in March, and Mr Vega said he believes the intelligence officials were trying to see what anti-Putin message was contained in the production.
"They would only message between 9am and 5pm Moscow time. It's obviously some guy with his boss on the side checking every answer before sending it to me," said Mr Vega.
"I started negotiating a price, it was $200,000, I told them they need to send me the first transfer, $10,000 just for proof. They agreed," he told the outlet.
The director said that he is not afraid of infuriating Putin with the film, which is set to be released in the UK in September.
