In Soviet Russia, comedy satirises you! Armando Iannucci – the man behind Alan Partridge, The Thick Of It, In The Loop and about a billion other cult comedy classics – rarely steps a foot wrong, and after passing the torch on his multi-award-winning HBO comedy Veep after season 5, the Scottish writer-director-producer has put his hand to a new film entitled The Death Of Stalin. Those who don't watch this very funny first trailer will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.
Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Fabien Nury, the film depicts the sudden demise of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1953, and the chaotic fallout that followed in the Communist Party apparat, as Stalin's underlings vie for power – and their lives.
There's a giant ensemble cast populating this Kremlin, which includes (deep breath): Adrian McLoughlin as Joseph Stalin, Jeffrey Tambor as Georgy Malenkov, Steve Buscemi as Nikita Khrushchev, Olga Kurylenko as Maria Yudina, Michael Palin as Vyacheslav Molotov, Simon Russell Beale as Lavrentiy Beria, Paddy Considine as Comrade Andreyev, Andrea Riseborough as Svetlana Stalin, Rupert Friend as Vasily Stalin, Jason Isaacs as Georgy Zhukov, Paul Whitehouse as Anastas Mikoyan, and Justin Edwards as Spartak Sokolov.
By the looks of the trailer, there's accents flying everywhere, from faithful Russian cadences to eee-bye-gum Yorkshire lilts and distinctly New York-esque dialects. Expect a typically witty, sweary, and farcical tour de force from Iannucci and regular co-writers David Schneider and Ian Martin when The Death Of Stalin arrives in cinemas on 20 October.
Steve Buscemi and Jeffrey Tambor join Armando Iannucci's The Death Of Stalin