Saddam Hussein Movie: The Dictator To Star Sacha Baron Cohen

by NowPublic Staff | January 21, 2011 at 12:00 pm

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Borat, Bruno Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen To Play Saddam Hussein In The Dictator | Based On Book By Saddam Hussein - 'Zabibah and the King'

The funny and at times controversial comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has announced he will play late Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, in a film to be called, The Dictator.

The film, set for release in May 2012, "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," Paramount Pictures said.

The directer of the film is scheduled to be Larry Charles who directed Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat.

The film is actually based on a book reportedly written by Saddam Hussein called Zabibah and the King. The CIA believes it was written by ghostwriters with direct involvement from Saddam Hussein.

The plot is a love story about a powerful ruler of medieval Iraq and a beautiful commoner girl named Zabibah. Zabibah's husband is a cruel and unloving man who rapes her. The book is set in 7th or 8th century Tikrit, Hussein's home town. Although the book is on the surface a romance novel, it is (and was intended to be read as) an allegory. The hero is Hussein and Zabibah represents the Iraqi people. The vicious husband is the United States and his rape of Zabibah represents the U.S. invasion of Iraq at the end of the Persian Gulf war.

The book was a best-seller in Iraq when it was originally published for 1,500 Iraqi dinars (less than USD$1.00). It is estimated that over one million copies were sold.[3] Royalties, according to the back cover, were to go to "the poor, the orphans, the miserable, the needy, and [other] charities". A 20-part television serial and a musical based on it were later produced.