Now that Brüno is finished and in theaters, what is Sacha Baron Cohen to do next? Surely he can continue appearing in movies not his own, such as he did with Talladega Nights and Sweeney Todd, but will there ever be another shock-mockumentary in the style of Borat and Brüno? Even if he develops some new characters, people don’t believe he could make another one of these kinds of films stealthily enough to make it work.
Well, let’s hope that isn’t true, because we would love to see at least one more. And we think he’s enough of a chameleon that his increasing fame won’t get in the way. As Metromix recently pointed out, there are just so many people (live and dead) who still need to be interviewed and/or pranked by Baron Cohen. Also, there are so many more marginalized people out there who could use a Brüno of their own to challenge the stereotypes and expose the continuing prejudices of our country.
To help Baron Cohen come up with a new character and issue, we’ve selected five already existing scenarios — which should help garner funding since Hollywood is so into remakes — to inspire him.
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Apparently the new Sacha Baron Cohen satire Bruno has offended members of the Hollywood gay community enough to warrant reshoots. While this sounds about as legitimate as the G.I. Joe firing (which ended up being “untrue”), it’s still the hot story of the day and brings up the interesting topic of “queerface.” In an email tipped to both The Wrap and Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily, Baron Cohen’s caricature is likened to blackface and argues that subversive intentions don’t excuse the grotesque level of mocking.
In a way I can see why the film might be unfair and even offensive to gays. Bruno could be the homosexual equivalent of Soul Man, albeit more direct and documentary-like, rather than the homosexual Tropic Thunder. Would it have been better received if Baron Cohen was gay? Probably. Will reshoots help? Who knows. Again, this may not even be a true story, so we’ll just have to see what happens when the movie hits theaters next month.
Find out what the rest of the film blogosphere is saying about this story after the jump:
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