A politically-charged comedy from the man whose Friday Night Armistice made waves in the late 90s, who helped Chris Morris and The Day Today team make mincemeat of the establishment, and whose creations include Selena Meyer and Malcolm Tucker, was always going to be a highlight of the cinematic year. Armando Iannucci has passed on the reins of the spectacular success story Veep and dived headlong into his own project – The Death of Stalin – which debuted in Toronto last night.
Steve Buscemi heads up the cast which features Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Monty Python’s Michael Palin, Andrea Riseborough, Paul Whitehouse and Jeffrey Tambor. It’s quite a cast, and Iannucci is a master at ensemble comedy, so we have high hopes for this one.
Paul Heath of TheHollywoodNews was asking the questions on the red carpet of the premiere, Editor Dave Sztypuljak was the man capturing it all. Here’s how they got on.
Here’s the official synopsis:
The internal political landscape of 1950’s Soviet Russia takes on darkly comic form in a new film by Emmy award-winning and Oscar-nominated writer/director Armando Iannucci.
In the days following Stalin’s collapse, his core team of ministers tussle for control; some want positive change in the Soviet Union, others have more sinister motives. Their one common trait? They’re all just desperately trying to remain alive.
A film that combines comedy, drama, pathos and political manoeuvring, The Death of Stalin is a Quad and Main Journey production, directed by Armando Iannucci, and produced by Yann Zenou, Kevin Loader, Nicolas Duval Assakovsky, and Laurent Zeitoun. The script is written by Iannucci, David Schneider and Ian Martin, with additional material by Peter Fellows.
The Death of Stalin opens in UK cinemas on October 20th with the US release not yet set.
