Sacha Baron Cohen Takes on Saddam Hussein
The star of "Borat" is working on a movie based on a novel by the dictator.
Jan. 23. 2011— -- The star of 'Borat' and 'Bruno' Sacha Baron Cohen isn't afraid to poke fun at politicians, the fashion world, and just about anyone else, but now he will be taking his skewering and skewed comedy to possibly his most controversial subject: Saddam Hussein.
Cohen is reported to be starring in "The Dictator," a film loosely based on Saddam Hussein's own 2000 book, "Zabiba and the King." Hussein's novel was originally a love story about a ruler in medieval Iraq and a common girl, Zabiba, but Cohen plans to turn it into a political comedy.
Cohen's films are notorious for courting scandal while also generating huge profits, with estimated grosses to be hundreds of millions worldwide -- but are audiences ready for a satire about Saddam Hussein and the oppression of the Iraqi people?
"People are already upset, and they're even wondering, was there a romantic novel by Saddam Hussein?" said Village Voice columnist Michael Musto. "When people are still sensitive about subjects, he presses on the wound, in a funny way."
"The film tells the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed," Paramount joked in a news release.
"The Dictator" will be released worldwide on May 11, 2012. The studio also announced that Larry Charles, who also directed "Borat" and "Bruno," will direct the feature film.
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