First Official Image: Sacha Baron Cohen In ‘The Dictator’
Earlier this week we saw anon-set snapofSacha Baron Cohenin costume as one of the characters inThe Dictator. Now we’ve got the first official look at Sacha Baron Cohen in costume as the other main character inThe Dictator. The full snap is after the break.
So: the film is (or appears to be) a strange blend of influence from Charlie Chaplin’s filmThe Great Dictator, and the novelZabibah and The King, by Saddam Hussein. (Or which was, more likely, ghostwritten by others and then saw Saddam’s name slapped on it.) Sacha Baron Cohen plays two characters, as explained below:
[Sacha] Baron Cohen plays a ruthless dictator who heads to the U.S. for a meeting at the United Nations and finds that his number two has replaced him with an unsuspecting sheepherder lookalike. As the dictator wanders the city, he meets the owner of an organic food store… She turns around his dictatorial thinking, and there’s a little romance in it as well.
BoratandBrunodirectorLarry Charlesis behind the camera once more, and the cast also includesBen Kingsley,Jason Mantzoukas, andAnna Faris. The script is byAlec Berg,Jeff SchafferandDavid Mandel, and we don’t know to what degree this film will be improvised.BoratandBrunorelied heavily on rolling with whatever happened in the moment, and with Sacha Baron Cohen and Larry Charles working together once more, it isn’t a stretch to expect some similar working method for this film.
We’ll find out how things are balanced (or not) whenThe Dictatoropens on August 11, 2025.
