No, it’s not a prequel to the Charlie Chaplin classic. Sacha Baron Cohen is reteaming with his Borat and Bruno director Larry Charles for this comedy. The Dictator, going under the name Finchley Dreams, just kicked off production in New York City, and the first photo has appeared on MovieWeb. Cohen stars along Ben Kingsley, Jason Mantzoukas, and Anna Faris in the “heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.” We can see Cohen below in his red, white and blue colors of that country.

Written by Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer and David Mandel, the film is loosely based off Saddam Hussein‘s novel, Zabibah and the King. Faris plays an organic food store owner, who changes Cohen’s dictatorial line of thinking, with some romance thrown in. Mantzoukas and Kingsley play two Middle Eastern characters.

While Borat was universally loved and made over $260m worldwide, Bruno was considered a failure both critically and box-office wise. Even though it made almost $140m at the worldwide box office, many were turned off by the taboo subject matter. I thought it was a funny commentary on what Americans will accept both in the film and as an audience, which is sadly not much.  The Dictator sounds like another step in the right direction.

The Dictator hits theaters May 11th, 2012 and one can see Cohen and Kingsley together in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo Cabret this November.

What do you think of our first look at Cohen? Were you a fan of Bruno?

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