STX ENTERTAINMENT TO BRING THE PUSSY RIOT STORY TO SCREEN WITH A LIMITED SERIES ADAPTATION OF MEMOIR BY NADYA TOLOKONNIKOVA

BURBANK, Calif., Dec. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — STX Entertainment has reached a deal with Nadya Tolokonnikova, the artist, activist, and creator of the legendary Russian feminist protest art collective Pussy Riot, to develop a limited scripted series based on her forthcoming memoir. The project was brought to the studio by former President of STX Sophie Watts. The announcement was made today by Noah Fogelson, Chief Executive Officer, STX Entertainment.

Members of the radical feminist punk group ‘Pussy Riot’ stage a protest against Vladimir Putin’s policies at the so-called Lobnoye Mesto (Forehead Place), long before used for announcing Russian tsars’ decrees and occasionally for carrying out public executions, in Red Square in Moscow.

The series represents the first scripted project of Pussy Riot with the full support of the creator of the movement, Nadya Tolokonnikova, with all preceding projects (including Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer and Pussy versus Putin) being documentaries. It will explore the story of how a young girl from Siberia took on the world’s most powerful dictator – the origins and formation of the art collective; the actions of Nadya and fellow young women against Putin in Moscow; their arrest after the famous “Punk Prayer” action; their trial, conviction, and jail sentence; and the protests they conducted at the Sochi Olympics after their release.

Executive producer of the series Sophie Watts will guide the project along with STX’s Robert Simonds and Sam Brown. John Caldwell (Unicorn DAO co-founder) will also executive produce.

“We are incredibly excited to make a show as courageous and daring as its subject,” said Watts. “Nadya’s life is nothing short of extraordinary. A gripping, real-life spy life, filled with heroic, relentless art actions and activism, this series will show how a persevering artistic spirit can change the world.”

Nadya Tolokonnikova said: “I was a broke 20-year-old artist studying philosophy, he was one of the most powerful, wealthy and dangerous men on Earth. In 2011 I went against him, damn the consequences. After years of imprisonment, harassment, attacks, trauma I am ready to share this story.

My dream is to see my country peaceful, democratic and diverse, where gay people are not being stoned to death. Is it too much to ask? Does it make me an extremist?

Today I’m on Russia’s most wanted list, labeled as a foreign agent, and recently was arrested in absentia by Russian court. My relatives and friends had been poisoned, my government wants me dead, but I don’t regret anything. If Pussy Riot’s story can inspire a new generation of rebels, it was all not in vain.”

Tolokonnikova is represented by Larry Salz at UTA and attorney Dave Ryan at Felker Toczek Suddleson Abramson LLP.

NADYA TOLOKONNIKOVA founded Pussy Riot a global feminist protest art movement, in 2011. She rose to fame by staging demonstrations and protests, with songs advocating feminism and LGBT rights and denouncing the policies of Vladimir Putin; today, hundreds of people identify as a part of the Pussy Riot community. After a protest in 2012, she was sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment; she endured a hunger strike to protest savage prison conditions and was later sent to a Siberian penal colony, Since her prison release in December 2013, she has relentlessly continued her activism, has been arrested dozens of times, beaten and threatened constantly – and earlier this year, she was added to Putin’s “most wanted” list.

ABOUT STX ENTERTAINMENT

STX Entertainment, is a next-generation film and television studio that produces and acquires motion pictures and high quality television programming at scale. From blockbusters like Greenland, Hustlers, Bad Moms, and The Upside to hits like The Gentlemen, Molly‘s Game, and The Gift, STX Entertainment, through its subsidiaries, produces star-driven films and television entertainment for a global audience. The company most recently produced Ferrari starring Adam Driver and directed by Michael Mann. Upcoming films include: Greenland 2: Migration, the sequel to the global hit starring Gerard Butler as well as My Spy 2, starring Dave Bautista. The company has a number of films and direct-to-platform productions in development including Fast and Loose, starring Will Smith, Night Wolf starring Kevin Hart, I Slept with Joey Ramone starring Pete Davidson, and Muscle, starring Vin Diesel, among others.