It’s Tom Hardy versus the Soviet Union circa 1953 in Child 44 – Bane versus Stalin, if you like - and it could go either way. Hardy’s Soviet police office find himself spun in a web that may have no obvious exit, bar the gulag or cemetery, as the movie’s new TV spot shows. It’s debuting here courtesy of Entertainment One.
Adapted from the first of a book trilogy by Tom Rob Smith, **Child 44 **finds Soviet police officer Leo Demidov (Hardy) investigating a serial killer who is targeting children. The twist? Stalinist Russia doesn’t recognise the existence of crime, so Demidov’s enquiries only arouse the suspicions of dangerous apparatchiks. And as he digs deeper into the case, his government begins to suspect him of treason when a colleague frames him.
Noomi Rapace is playing his conflicted wife, Raisa, and Gary Oldman is the chief of police soon assigned to investigate his supposedly errant colleague. Safe House director Daniel Espinosa is behind this one, working up a tale of paranoia, treachery and crime that is loosely based on real events. With Richard Price handling script chores and Joel Kinnaman, Charles Dance, Vincent Cassel, Tara Fitzgerald, Paddy Considine and Fares Fares all helping to bolster the impressive cast, Child 44 will be out here on April 17.