Paramount Picks Up Sacha Baron Cohen's 'James Bond' Spoof

The very things that made James Bond cool -- the girls, the tuxedo, the gadgets -- also made the concept ripe for spoofs and off-shoots.
Jean Dujardin, the Oscar-winning actor from The Artist, starred in the French-made OSS 117 series, and Rowan Atkinson starred in a couple of Johnny English comedies. Even in the early days of the Bond movies, James Coburn ran around in the parodies Our Man Flint (1966) and In Like Flint (1967).
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Now Paramount is jumping into the fray, acquiring a pitch from Sacha Baron Cohen and Phil Johnston for an untitled comedy project featuring a James Bond-like spy who “is forced to go on the run with his long-lost brother, a moronic soccer hooligan,” according to the studio.
Baron Cohen might take a role in the project, though that would depend on availability and scheduling.
Baron Cohen has a first-look deal with Paramount and starred in this year's The Dictator for the studio. He is repped by WME.
Johnston wrote the Ed Helms comedy Cedar Rapids; worked on Disney’s Wreck-It-Ralph, which comes out this fall; and co-wrote Nebraska, which is Alexander Payne’s latest endeavor. He is repped by CAA.

- Borys Kit
- thrnews@thr.com
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by Scott Roxborough
