Sacha Baron Cohen to follow up Dictator success with Paramount deal

Sacha Baron Cohen quits Freddie Mercury film

Sacha Baron Cohen has renewed his first-look deal with Paramount Pictures after apparently finding himself inspired by Leonardo DiCaprio's cocaine-snorting antics in the controversial Oscar-tipped Martin Scorsese black comedy The Wolf of Wall Street.

The actor and comedian's production company, Four By Two Films, has announced a three-year, two-movie deal with the Hollywood film studio. Paramount also financed Scorsese's controversial tale of 1980s and 90s excess amongst the ersatz stockbrokers of discredited Long Island firm Stratton Oakmont, and the Borat star later said he was delighted to be part of the same team.

"Any studio that puts out a movie where Leonardo DiCaprio snorts cocaine from a hooker's anus is a place I'm happy to call home," he said, in comments translated from the original French. Baron Cohen said he was currently "vacationing with his mistress in Villeneuve, southern France".

Ironically, the British comic's next film will not be a production for Paramount. French film-maker Louis Leterrier emerged last December as the surprise choice to direct spy spoof Grimsby, with the movie set for release by rival studio Sony in July 2015.

Baron Cohen's comedy The Dictator, in 2012, is his only Paramount movie so far, although his upcoming project The Lesbian also looks likely to be set up at the studio. Based on the real-life story of billionaire Hong Kong shipping tycoon Cecil Chao, who offered a $65m (£40m) dowry to any man who would marry his lesbian daughter, the film is not expected to hit cinemas for several years.

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