Russian film director Yuri Kara wants US actor John Malkovich to play the role of Soviet nuclear scientist-turned- dissident Andrei Sakharov in an upcoming film, Moscow media reported Friday, dpa reported.
The reports cited Kara as saying he had completed the script for the film and had spoken to Malkovich, 57, to take the lead role of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Sakharov (1921-1989).
"To me, Sakharov is the Don Quixote of the 20th century," Kara said about the man who had helped build the ex-Soviet Union's first hydrogen bomb, only later to become an enemy of the Kremlin when he began to campaign for human rights.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 but was not permitted to travel to Oslo to accept it. His wife Yelena Bonner, a fellow human rights campaigner, read his speech at the Oslo ceremonies.
In January, 1980, Sakharov publicly protested against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, with the Kremlin responding by banning him to the city of Gorky. The ban was lifted in December 1986 by Mikhail Gorbachev who had begun to initiate reforms in the Soviet system