While I’m all sorts of giddy for his upcoming portrayal of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, Sacha Baron Cohen will first tackle the role of Saddam Hussein in The Dictator, which is based on the book “Zabibah and the King.” It isn’t apparent that this will be a comedic take on the former Iraqi President’s life, but the press release from Paramount claims that the film “tells the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed” so there’s a decent chance that it’s a comedy. Also, it’s being directed by Larry Charles, so who am I kidding?
Fingers crossed that he plays it super gay and changes the name to “Weapons of Sass Destruction”. But make me into a Zabibah belieber, Time News Feed…
The Dictator is set for release in May 2012 but what of the source text, which was originally published anonymously in 2000? A look on Amazon reveals that Zabibah and the King is the “allegorical love story between a mighty king (Saddam) and a simple, yet beautiful commoner named Zabibah (the Iraqi people). Zabibah is married to a cruel and unloving husband (the United States) who forces himself upon her against her will.” The book was set in mid to late 600 AD, but it’s unknown if the movie is going to be a modern retelling or not.
Amazon? Are we too lazy to check Wikipedia today? I kid, I kid, I checked Wikipedia and the only additional info that it provided was that Zabibah’s husband regularly raped her. Haha, stop Wikipedia, you’re getting me all bothered! Saddam originally added his name to the book as if he wrote it, but it is believed that he didn’t have anything to do with it. I say we kill him again just to be sure.
