From Borat to Bruno

The Ali G catalog adds another bigscreen chapter

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Monday, October 30th 2006 at 11:35 AM

Five days before Sacha Baron Cohen unleashes Borat on the world Variety is reporting that he is aiming to bring yet another one of his "Ali G" personas to the bigscreen and Universal is close to inking a $42.5 million deal for distribution rights for the film.

Bruno is one of Cohen's personalities from his popular "Da Ali G Show" featuring Cohen as he poses as an obviously gay Austrian TV reporter known for showing the off the underbelly of the superficial world of high fashion. Variety gives an example citing one scene when Cohen wormed his way into New York's Fashion Week and got people to say outrageous things about the fashion world such as condemning the unstylish to concentration camps.

You have to wonder if Universal is waiting for the public reaction to Borat before they put pen to paper, especially considering $42.5 million is a significant increase to the $18 million budget on Borat. The RopeofSilicon Podcast recently debated Borat and its potential for success and despite a major amount of marketing and exposure word around the campfire is that the film is still showing low levels of public awareness and will open on a very limited status with only 800 theaters before expanding throughout the month of November. Hopefully gaining attention via good word of mouth.

I am a fan of Cohen's "Ali G Show" but I have always found his Ali G character far funnier than both Borat and Bruno who are good in small doses but feature film size they may run out of gas. I recently saw Borat and while the film is very funny and has a very short running time there are moments where this sentiment rings true. It is said that Bruno will follow a similar "mockumentary" style format but the film will have to expand outside the world of fashion to make a feature out of it.

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