Propagandists are spreading information on social networks citing an article by the NY Daily News, that the Paramount Pictures studio, commissioned by Kvartal 95, will begin filming the blockbuster “The Price of Victory”, dedicated to the life path of Volodymyr Zelenskyi from comedian to president. According to them, James Mangold will direct, and Sean Penn, Shia LaBeouf or Jeremy Renner are being considered for the lead role. The film's budget is allegedly estimated at 115 million US dollars. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that the website that published this news was registered on January 18, 2024, shortly before the fake news appeared. At the same time, the site positions itself as a publication founded in 1975 by journalist J.R. McDouglas, information about which is not available in open sources. The name of the publication on the website is listed as New York News Daily, although the correct name should be New York News Daily. The fake resource is trying to imitate a real American publication with a similar name, founded in 1919, which has a good reputation. It is easy to confuse the two sites due to the similarity of domain names. The contact information on the fake site is incomplete or unclear, using placeholder text, highlighting its questionable reliability. The publication describes itself as the standard of journalism, however, it publishes contradictory articles that do not meet the standards of objectivity and honesty, and duplicate the fakes of Russian propaganda, especially on the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

They also discovered a “producer” profile on social network X, where the tweets that first shared the information likely originated. Access to the page was restricted at the time of writing, but an archived copy exists. Using facial identification tool PimEyes, VoxCheck analysts determined that the photograph was indeed that of Venezuelan surgeon Henry Garcia. So, a fake account allegedly produced by Paramount Pictures on platform X was created specifically to publish information about the non-existent film “The Price of Victory”.

The script of this film, which is given by propagandists, also looks rather implausible. For example, in one scene, President Zelenskyi is asked about the greatness of Ukraine, to which he responds with criticism of the situation in the country, in particular, recalling the years under the rule of the regime and the oligarchs, the restriction of freedom of speech and the violation of human rights. It’s hard to believe that a Ukrainian studio would agree to such a scenario in the current conditions.

In addition, propagandists recall that the cooperation between Paramount Pictures and the Kvartal 95 studio was allegedly facilitated by director Oleksandr Rodnianskyi through his company AR Content Studio, which previously worked with Paramount TV. However, there is no publicly available information confirming this collaboration. In 2022, Rodnianskyi did mention plans to make a film with the American company Anonymous Content about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, based on Peter Pomerantsev's article “We Can Only Be Enemies”, with Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi as director. There is no information yet about the implementation stage of this project.

Paramount Pictures, Kvartal 95, James Mangold, Sean Penn, and Jeremy Renner also did not announce the creation of the film “The Price of Victory” about the President of Ukraine. No reliable world or Ukrainian media confirmed this information. In addition, on the IMDb website, which is the largest resource about cinema, there is no information about the filming of such a film about Zelenskyi.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists want to discredit Zelenskyi. They say that while things are difficult in Ukraine, the president is spending a lot of money on a film about himself. Detector Media also refuted other fakes aimed at discrediting Zelenskyi.