'Borat 2' is officially on the way after a summer of surprise Sacha Baron Cohen sightings
It’s been 14 years since Kazakhstan “journalist” Borat Sagdiyev made his infamous tour across George W. Bush-era America, as captured in the 2006 comedy blockbuster, Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Now, Sacha Baron Cohen’s disruptive alter ego is coming face to face with President Donald Trump’s U.S. of A. After multiple Cohen sightings at various public events over the summer, Collider is confirming that the British comedian has completed production on Borat 2 and has even screened the film for select industry representatives.
According to Collider’s reporting, the sequel will find Borat having to adopt different guises in order to continue his investigations into American politics and culture. That reflects Cohen’s own experience of creating increasingly elaborate ruses since Borat made him a global superstar. In fact, one source told the website that Borat 2 has a hall of mirrors conceit with “Cohen playing Borat playing Cohen,” but that has yet to be confirmed. Also unconfirmed is whether original Borat director, Larry Charles, and producer, Jay Roach, are back on board for the second installment, and how the film will be released. While 20th Century Fox distributed the first film, the studio has since been purchased by the Walt Disney Company, which may not want to get dragged into any political battles.
And based on early reports of Cohen’s antics, Borat 2 is going to get seriously political. In June, the actor went undercover as an overweight country singer at a militia-organized event in Olympia, Wash. After encouraging the far right audience to sing along to a tune that included lyrics about the “Wuhan flu” and locking up Hillary Clinton, Cohen raced off-stage after crowds realized they were being pranked. “They spent a lot of money to make us look bad,” event organizer Matt Marshall told the press, saying that the actor infiltrated the rally by making a large last-minute donation.
In July, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed to have been part of another Cohen-orchestrated prank. During an interview with an unnamed female reporter that was supposedly going to cover the Trump administration’s coronavirus pandemic response, Giuliani said that Cohen burst into the room in a “pink transgender outfit” and proceeded to wreak havoc. “This person comes in yelling and screaming, and I thought this must be a scam or a shake-down,” he told Page Six. “So I reported it to the police. He then ran away.”
As recently as August, Borat was spotted driving around a locked-down Los Angeles, towed by a van that had two cameras filming the action.
Whatever else Cohen has planned for Borat 2, here’s hoping Ken Davitian gets a rematch of their epic nude wrestling match.
Borat is available to rent or purchase on Amazon and iTunes
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment
