When you worship at the alter of Peter Sellers, every role you take has got to push the envelope…over a cliff and into a pool of lava. Take Mike Myers. The guy hasn’t played it “normal” since So I Married an Axe Murderer. And even in that one he donned a wig to do double duty as his character’s Scottish father. However, it seems like there is a time limit imposed upon this kind of shapeshifting. Eventually, The Love Guru happens and everybody’s all “stop with the wigs and face putty already!” And when that moment arrives, what’s a poor persona-morpher to do? No one wants to see the normal, and no one wants to see the new. So, you go on the reunion tour and give ’em what worked before. That’s a singsongy way to sum up what has got to be a very tough moment clarity for a Sellers acolyte.
That’s why you have to wonder if Sellers fan and reported John Cena pal (what!) Sacha Baron Cohen will ever slip back into his officially retired Borat persona. When he removes the infamous lime green thongsuit from the cedar chest, take the action as a regression warning. Right now, though, things are looking up up up for the talented goof. Cohen is being uber-smart (and relatively quiet) as he bobbles and wades in the successful wake of Borat: [Insert Long Subtitle Here]. He semi-dipped back into the what-worked-before oil well by adapting Bruno (another one of the popular characters he developed on his Da Ali G Show) for the big screen. But his sharp and colorful supporting turns in Talladega Nights and last year’s Sweeney Todd seem more representative of where he wants to take things in the future – crazy characters that inhabit worlds rather than prank them.
It was recently announced that Cohen was going to tackle the role of classic super sleuth Sherlock Holmes (along with his Talladega Nights cohort Will Ferrell) in an upcoming comedy. And now he’s set to try out another heightened accent in a movie called Accidentes. Variety reports that Cohen is going to produce and most likely star in the movie. It’s about “a lawyer of Latin descent who transforms from contingency attorney to hero of the working class when he helps an immigrant win a judgment against his wealthy employer after a landscaping mishap. He also becomes the enemy of L.A.’s power elite.” Going nose-to-noses with the Los Angeles power elite, eh? Sounds dangerous…like texting while driving. Or while putting.
The premise doesn’t sound too promising, but Cohen’s involvement makes the project one to keep an eye on. Movie studio Fox Atomic is working with Cohen to kick this thing into orbit. The young studio, which is a subdivision of Twentieth Century Fox, has come a long way since its first flick – the time capsule-worthy Turistas. They broke a company-launching bottle of champagne on the bow of Turistas. That must be one splendid, maze-like path that got them from there to this. Sweet, FA!