By Sarah Sluis
The idea of turning Saddam Hussein's memoir into a comedy, a mainstream studio comedy, is a risky choice in the vein of director Ernst Lubitsch's awesome Nazi comedy To Be or Not to Be (which coincidentally did terribly since it was released right after the U.S. entered WWII. But I digress). As previously announced, Sacha Baron Cohen will adopt another foreign accent for The Dictator. He will play a Saddam Hussein-ish character who goes to New York for a United Nations meeting, only to be usurped by a look-alike sheepherder (also played by Baron Cohen). Anna Faris, a funny girl who was recently the subject of a flattering profile in The New Yorker, will play his love interest, the owner of an organic food store.
Deadline has some of the backstory around the project, which has a relatively high budget of $58-65 million, including $20 million for Baron Cohen. In a move that seems more suited to "Entourage" than real life, Paramount sent goats wearing Paramount t-shirts to Baron Cohen and his agency's executives, encouraging them to sign on instead of choosing three other interested studios. And sign on they did, reportedly in a cushy contract that will give Cohen the near-extinct perk of first-dollar gross.
I thought Baron Cohen's Borat and Bruno were both hilarious, though Bruno fell short at the box office. Baron Cohen's characters have always felt and read like impersonations and used the mockumentary style. The Dictator preserves Baron Cohen as an impersonator, and perhaps it will even be shot in a mockumentary style. But it's more grounded in reality: The story and character are riffs on Saddam Hussein. Like To Be or Not to Be, however, this project will be incredibly vulnerable to current events. News like the death of Osama bin Laden could change the national mood and make people less receptive to seeing something so fresh skewered. Still, I applaud Paramount for taking on a comedy that feels truly risky and exciting.
No comments:
Post a Comment