expectations. When Duvall was offered the lead by Carliner, he agreed to take up the role. Carliner noted that Duvall was not his first choice, as his body constitution was more similar to Lenin's. Duvall was keen to have Czech director Ivan Passer direct and fought for his appointment. Although the producers didn't like it, Passer was eventually hired very late into the project. Having fled his native country during the Prague Spring, Passer had a special relationship with the project. Makeup To recreate Stalin's likeness on Duvall, make-up specialist and Oscar winner Stephan Dupuis was hired. He faced the challenge of transforming Duvall's blue eyes, which are deep-set and soft-looking, his bald head, and small nose into Stalin's coarse face, dark skin, and brown, slightly Mongolian eyes. To do this, he studied photos of both men to determine the differences in facial contours. He drove to Duvall's ranch, made an impression of his face, and then made a clay mask from it at home. Taking into account the different parts of the skin, the right colours, wig, nasal prosthesis, false eyebrows and moustache, he eventually accomplished the task. The final product was completed only a week before shooting began. A mobile studio was used during filming in Russia to create the masks. Pre-production On the eve of August 18, 1991, Passer and Carliner were in Moscow looking for suitable locations. They stayed at the Oktyabrskaya Hotel, which turned out to be the main headquarters of the opposition that initiated the August coup in Moscow the next morning. When the military took up positions around the Kremlin, they immediately fled Russia for Hungary, fearing being mistakened for enemy CIA agents. Arriving in Budapest, Carliner believed that "two years of work to get the filming permits went up in smoke" and the film could not be made. Passer suggested shooting the film in Budapest instead. The next day, Leonid Vereshchagin, a cultural adviser to the Russian government, called and said that the coup would be over in about ten days. He urged Carliner to shoot in Russia at all costs. Well aware of the propaganda value that could be made of the film against opposition critics, the filmmakers were promised all support and invited back to Moscow three days after the attempted coup was over. Several interior scenes were shot in Hungary, before the full film crew returned to Moscow about