After taking the leading roles in this year’s brilliant comedy, The Dictator, Sacha Baron Cohen is set to return to his usual controversial antics, having found his next project in a true-life story that surfaced last week.
Cecil Chao, a Hong Kong billionaire business tycoon, has recently offered a sum of m. to the man who can woo and marry his lesbian daughter, who recently wed her partner of seven years in France.
This is the story that Baron Cohen is bringing to Paramount, Deadline report, to develop as his next potential starring vehicle.
Naturally, it’s expected the actor would be playing the role of the business tycoon, and it will be interesting to see if he’ll be playing him as a Hong Kong billionaire, or if his nationality will change. (My guess: probably the former.)
Baron Cohen will be producing through his Four By Two Films banner, the same production company behind Borat, Brüno, and most recently this year’s The Dictator, which took $175m. worldwide.
No word yet on when this might go into production, but hopefully it will be sooner rather than later, because I’m a big fan of Baron Cohen’s films.
And with any luck, it will hopefully see Larry Charles return to work with the actor/writer, who’s directed his past three films.
Like the director, no writer has yet been set, but if Charles does return behind the camera, that might well mean that he’ll be bringing his Curb Your Enthusiasm team – Jeff Schaffer, David Mandel, and Alec Berg – once more to pen the script with Baron Cohen, having worked so well for The Dictator. More as we get it.
