Late last week it was rumoured that Gillian Jacobs, Kristen Wiig and Anna Faris were all in contention for the female lead in Sasha Baron Cohen’s new movie, The Dictator. Now it’s been revealed by Deadline that Faris has won the part and that she’s in talks to sign onto the movie.
The film sees Baron Cohen playing a dictator who travels to America for a meeting at the United Nations. However, he discovers his second in command has replaced him with a look-alike sheepherder. Anna Faris will play an organic food store owner who meets the dictator and gives him a fresh outlook on life, and perhaps a bit of romance as well.
Believe it or not, the film is based on a book that is believed to have been written by Saddam Hussein. Zabibah and The King was written as an allegory for how great Saddam was for the Iraqi people and how the US had raped the country, but will get a bit of an ironic twist for this version.
Ben Kingsley and Jason Mantzoukas recently signed up, playing as yet unspecified Middle-Easterners (what’s the betting Kingsley is the evil second in command?), with shooting on the Larry Charles directed flick expected to start next month in New York and Spain.