Nikulin Yury Vladimirovich

Nikulin Yury Vladimirovich

Biography

2024: Using deepfake in the film

March 26, 2024 it became known that one of the heroes of the family comedy "Manyunya: Adventures in Moscow" will be the image of the Soviet actor and circus artist Yuri Nikulin, formed using artificial intelligence technologies. This is the first successful experience in Russia to recreate the appearance and voice of the late actor through a neural network.

As the producer of the film Gevond Andreasyan said, the creators of the comedy received permission to use the image of Nikulin from his relatives. At the same time, the deepfake image of the artist cannot be used during the promotional campaign of the picture, including trailers.

The film "Manyunya: Adventures in Moscow" directed by Denis Gulyar is a continuation of the films "Manyunya" and "Manyunya: New Year's Adventures." The film takes place in the early 80s, and Nikulin's deepfake will become one of the key characters in the story of the adventures of Manyuni and her friends.

Andreasyan says that the work on creating a high-quality AI image of Nikulin took about eight months. As noted by the "Film Distributor's Bulletin," three scenes with the participation of the artist were shown at the presentation of the film, and judging by them, "the result is really impressive." The film "Manyunya: Adventures in Moscow" is released in Russian rental on May 30, 2024.

The full-length film is a continuation of the series "Manyunya" about a Soviet girl, based on the book of the same name by Narine Abgaryan. The action takes place in 1979 in Armenia. In the center of the plot are two schoolgirl friends, Manyunya and Narine, who together experience a series of adventures and constantly find themselves in ridiculous and funny situations. The premiere of the series took place in the Okko online cinema on December 15, 2021, and a year later the second season was released - about the adventures of the heroines in the Kolagir pioneer camp. The third season was released on December 25, 2023.^[1]

Notes