Rasputin (aka Gerard Depardieu) offered job in his native Siberia

'Tyumen Bolshoi Drama theatre decided to support the Russian grazhdanin (citizen), the great French actor Gerard Depardieu, and is inviting him to join our troupe,' said a statement on its Facebook page.

'We offer an express labour contract, his salary will be 16,000 roubles ($525 a month) with an extra 22%, plus 10% extra of Ural's coefficient, plus 15% on top for playing roles, and a rented flat in the centre of Tyumen.' 

The theatre boasts 'a great personal interpreting system for viewers, with audio, video and subtitles'. 

Depardieu was granted Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin and collected his passport over the New Year holidays. Surprisingly, perhaps, the region of Tyumen should be close to his heart. 

In a new Franco-Russian film out this year he plays Grigory Rasputin, the 'mad' Siberian monk who had a decisive role in the life and demise of the Royal family of Russia in the years leading up to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in 1917.

Rasputin's birthplace was in the village of Pokrovskoye in Tyumen region. The bizarre holy man had predicted to the royal family that they would see his remote village one day. And they did - passing through it during their tragic exile before they were slain by forces loyal to the Bolshevik leadership in 1918 in Yekaterinburg. 

The new film was made in St Petersburg and the far north of Russia, around Arkhangelsk, was used to simulate Siberia. 

The film follows the last two years of Rasputin's life from 1914 to 1916, and focuses on his close relationship with the tsar and especially his wife, Alexandra. 

Deparieu was earlier offered the job of culture minister in Mordovia, a Russian region south east of Moscow.