Sacha Baron Cohen to star in film ‘inspired by Saddam Hussein book’
By ANIFriday, January 21, 2011
LONDON - Actor Sacha Baron Cohen is set to star in a comedy film ‘The Dictator’ inspired by a book thought to have been written by ex Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
The movie is a loose adaptation of the novel Zabibah and the King, which was a best-seller in Iraq in 2000, reports the BBC.
According to Paramount Pictures, the film would tell “the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed”.
Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer and David Mandel - writers on ‘Seinfeld’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ - have been recruited to pen the script.
Larry Charles, who worked with the actor on both the ‘Bruno’ and ‘Borat’ comedies, will direct the film.
Although Zabibah and the King was written under the pseudonym “The Author”, it is believed it was written by ghost-writers carefully supervised by Hussein.
The film will be released on 11 May 2012. (ANI)
