Polish filmmaker Patryk Vega is attending the AFM to talk up his AI-generated biopic of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, as well as seeking US partners for future AI-supported projects, through his production banner AIO Studios.
Putin has already been sold to 35 countries and is in discussion for multiple additional markets, being sold by Germany’s Kinostar. The company is releasing directly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, UK and Ireland. TriCoast released theatrically in the US.
The feature took 18 months to film with a budget of $15m from private sources, shooting across Poland, Israel, Syria, Jordan, Russia and Ukraine; it also shot in the Holy Grove in Jerusalem, which took six months to arrange.
The film includes actual footage of real bombings of Ukrainian cities. Vega took a guerrilla approach to filmmaking to get shots from inside Russia.
“I needed to use a lot of techniques from my experience in documentary, when a lot of time I couldn’t show the camera,” says Vega.
To create a likeness for Putin, Vega developed his own technology to superimpose the face of Putin on actor Slawomir Sobala, who spent a year studying Putin’s body language.
“I was convinced that the audience needed to see the real Putin on screen in my film. They see him every day in the media – even the best actor with great make-up wouldn’t convincingly portray a figure everyone in the world knows so well,” says Vega.
“The technology we needed wasn’t available, and previous attempts by two studios in LA and London had also failed. We needed to try to develop our own. We had a breakthrough to leverage real-world experience and use AI solely as a computing power to help create a human likeness.
“The technology we’ve discovered for creating ultra-realistic characters on screen, where human creation is supported by AI, is groundbreaking.”
The film’s subject has been met with skittishness from some in the industry. Vega also had cause for concern that Russian intelligence had infiltrated contacts on this phone.
“Lots of distributors and companies felt fear,” says Vega. “One public relations company in the United States said they were afraid that Putin would hit their building by rocket.”
This is Vega’s first film in the English language; his previous credits include Polish releases Pitbull and Women Of Mafia. Through his production company, he wants to use his AI technology to create further biopics and a service for generating digital crowds on screen.
His next project is set in a near future, looking at how hadron technology will change the type of terrorism in the world. He hopes to shoot the film next year and continue to work in the English language.
Vega is attending the AFM looking for financing, as well as a US scriptwriter, director of photography and composer.
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