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Sacha Baron Cohen Says He'll Never Play Borat Again
Filed under: Comedy », Casting », Deals », New Releases », Fandom »
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In an interview for Sweeney Todd over at the Telegraph, Sacha Baron Cohen goes into lots of detail about the process of learning to sing for the role. He tells a long anecdote about having his mother look up a singing teacher for him in the Yellow Pages, and then finding out the woman not only never heard of him, but also never heard of Tim Burton, Johnny Depp or the musical Sweeney Todd. "I ignored everything she said and went to the set the next day," he says. When made to audition for Sondheim, Cohen says he was unable to hit a crucial high note, but came up with a unique solution -- "I brought in a very fat female opera singer to sing the final note." Apparently, that was good enough to gain him Sondheim's approval.
Cohen also talks at length about his alter-egos Ali G and Borat, and says that he's come to realize that the popularity of the Borat movie means he'll never be able to do the character again. "Admitting I am never going to play them [Borat and Ali G] again is quite a sad thing," he says. "It's like saying goodbye to a loved one. It is hard, and the problem with success, although it's fantastic, is that every new person who sees the Borat movie is one less person I 'get' with Borat again, so it's kind of self-defeating form, really. It's upsetting, but the success has been great." Of course, the interviewer tries to get some info out of Cohen about Bruno, the next character he'll be taking to the big screen, but Cohen pretty much stops him cold. He's not opening his mouth about that.
Sacha Baron Cohen: Peeking at the Real Man Behind the Borat Curtain
Filed under: Comedy », Celebrities and Controversy », 20th Century Fox », Politics »
Sacha Baron Cohen may be steadfastly maintaining his Borat persona in promoting his film Borat: Cultural Learnings on America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, but at one time, he hit the talk show circuit as himself. Here's proof: An interview with Cohen -- the real guy -- on The Letterman Show. Cohen talks about his television show Da Ali G Show in the interview. See, this is exactly what Cohen ought to be doing to promote Borat -- going on the talk show circuit as himself, and intelligently explaining his film and the Borat character. Plus, he looks ever so much nicer in that sharp black suit than in the godawful suit Borat wears.
As a side note, there's an interesting email update from Fandango about Borat ticket sales that says Borat ticket sales are smoking everything else on Fandango at the moment, with 73% of Fandango ticket sales as of noon PST today. However, they also did a poll about the film, and 96% of those who planned to see it said they'd be seeing it opening weekend. It's going to be interesting to see if the film opens slowly and grows, or opens modestly and tanks. What about you? Are you planning to get to a theater this weekend to see Borat for yourself? And would you like to see Cohen talk about the film as himself, or does the non-stop Borat-ing work for you?
Ten Movie Publicity Stunts: Borat Isn't Alone
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy », Tom Cruise », Movie Marketing », Kevin Smith »
In the wake of Sacha Baron Cohen's alter-ego Borat trying to gain access to the White House, MTV has listed ten other publicity stunts for films -- including Kevin Smith's truly grovel-worthy MySpace friends-for-a-movie-credit exchange. Although probably most disturbing on the list is the 1988 film Mac and Me which was partially financed by Coca-Cola and McDonalds, and features a musical number that finds Mac dancing with Ronald McDonald. Holy hour and a half long commercial, Batman!However, I'm reminded of several stunts that didn't make the list. Remember when Clue was released in theaters, and they featured three different endings, so people would go see it more than once? What a fiasco, as finding out which theater was showing what ending proved to be too much work. Don't forget about the "unauthorized" documentary about M. Night Shyamalan that aired on the Sci-Fi channel. It turned out to be a fake created to get more viewers in to see The Village. Of course, the most memorable publicity stunt, real or fake (the jury is still out) has been Tom Cruise jumping up and down on Oprah's couch. Although given Tom's downward slide lately, that one appears to have backfired on him as well. Of course, leave it to MTV themselves to have Steve-O going number one on the carpet at the premiere to promote Jackass: Number Two. They just seem to be getting classier, don't they?
What do you think about publicity stunts? Do they make you want to see the movie or avoid it like the plague? Do you have any personal favorites that didn't make the list?
Moon People for Columbia
Filed under: Comedy », Deals », Universal », Scripts », Newsstand », Dreamworks »
These are good times for comedian Demetri Martin. In just a few years, the Yale graduate and NYU law school dropout has won a comedy award at Edinburgh's Fringe Festival, scored a high-profile gig writing for Conan O'Brien, worked as a Daily Show correspondent and also starred in his own Comedy Central special. Oh, and he's sold two comedy pitches to major Hollywood studios -- I'd say that's a pretty good three-year run.The first pitch, which sold to Dreamworks earlier this year, was entitled Will and will be executive-produced by Scot Armstrong, one of Old School's writers. Pitch number two, called Moon People, was just bought by Columbia and sounds potentially very cool, assuming it's been placed in the correct hands. The movie will detail the struggles of "a group of people who return to assimilate on Earth years after they were sent to colonize the moon." Nice, huh? Martin himself will write the screenplay and then hand it over to Ali G Show writer-director James Bobin to direct.
Borat is Coming!
Filed under: Comedy », 20th Century Fox »
Ever since I was assigned one of the Ali G DVDs for review, I've been a pretty big fan of Sacha Cohen's aggressive humor. (Dig the guy's material or not, there's little denying that he's more of a satirist than a stooge.) Annoyingly enough, I always seem to "get in late" where the hot new comedies are concerned, but I also seem to discover the good stuff before too long. (Robot Chicken! Woohoo!) Anyway, I do have some movie-related news to pass along, and it comes in the form of a trailer. A trailer for a film called Borat. A trailer that made me laugh out loud on two separate occasions, which is more than I can say for Date Movie, which runs about 40 times longer than the Borat trailer.Borat, for those who might not be fluent in Sacha Baron Cohen, is a Khazakstanian news reporter who travels the globe while annoying people and doing ridiculously amusing, but often strangely clever, things. (Frankly I think Borat is funnier than the flagship Ali G character, so this Borat flick was obviously made for me.) Of course, there are some Khazakstanians who don't find Borat all that amusing, which is understandable, but at least their most globally recognizable buffoon is a fictional character and not an elected official. (I'm jealous!)
Directed by Seinfeld / Entourage writer/producer Larry Charles (after Todd Phillips quit the gig), Borat will hit American shores (in November) courtesy of 20th Century Fox, provided the studio doesn't get cold feet and shelve the thing, which is something that seems to happen to ballsy, brazen, or potentially controversial little comedies from time to time. (Did the Ali G movie even PLAY in American theaters? I mean, it's not brilliant, but freakin' Date Movie opened on 3,000 screens!)
Anyway, back to Borat: JoBlo dug it, this guy dug it, and here's the official site, too. Have fun.
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