Sacha Baron Cohen continues to prosper in the post-Ali G era. He has already made an obscene amount of cash for this movies “Borat” and “Bruno” and according to Variety, has two more projects in development via his production company “Four By Two Films.”
The first is an untitled project that was just picked up by Columbia Pictures for a reported seven-figures. Columbia beat out two other studios in the bidding process for a script that isn’t even written yet. Though it will be penned by the same team that penned “Borat” and “Bruno” (Baron Cohen, Peter Baynham, Ant Hines, and Dan Mazer) so we suppose the confidence isn’t misplaced. “Borat” was great and even for all its faults “Bruno” pulled in nearly $140 worldwide (that’s not really the bomb we all thought it was this summer now was it?).
Second up (though probably the first to be made of the two) is the ambulance-chasing lawyer comedy, “Accidentes” and was purchased by Universal Pictures after Fox Atomic, who previously owned the rights, folded and it went up for grabs last summer. Baron Cohen will play a Latino-American attorney in LA who wins a case against a wealthy member of the community and in doing so becomes a hero to the blue collar workers of the city. Baron Cohen is set to produce both projects but this is the only one he will definitely star in as well.
Thank god we will be seeing him do normal movies for at least the near future. The formula he used for “Bruno” and “Borat” was on its last legs as it is and there are only so many wigs he can wear before people recognize him.
Cohen is the new John Tuturro, in that he can play a wide variety of ethnicities and totally get away with it.
I think he can pull off the Bruno/Borat type of movie once more, but by being himself (no wigs, mustaches, etc).
Just by pretending to be an investigative journalist or something. No one would recognize him, and he could trick plenty of elite interviewees into being in the movie.