Sacha Baron Cohen hasn’t had the greatest year so far, fronting the comedy flop “The Brothers Grimsby,” while featuring in the blockbuster misfire “Alice Through The Looking Glass.” And while that double whammy might slow the careers of some actors down, it would seem that Warner Bros. doesn’t have a reservation about banking on Cohen’s talent, and are possibly centering a franchise around him.
The actor is circling the lead role in “Mandrake The Magician,” a property that has been kicking around in development at WB for a few years now. It’s based on a vintage comic that follows the titular illusionist Mandrake, who fought everything from gangsters to aliens. His was popular enough to spawn various TV efforts, but none of them truly took off, so I would suppose that like “Doc Savage,” this is chance to revive a character for a new generation and audience. I can only imagine that WB isn’t just thinking of one movie.
But it’s all very early days. There is no script, and no deals in place, though Etan Cohen (“Get Hard“) is looking at the director’s chair. So file this is a maybe at the moment, but it seems there is some movement happening on the project. [Deadline]
