Sacha Baron Cohen, fresh off his flip flop-clad meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres, has sold a spy spoof to Paramount. Variety reports:

Baron Cohen and Phil Johnston have sold an untitled pitch to Paramount that follows a James Bond-like spy forced to go on the run with his long-lost brother, a moronic soccer hooligan. Studio couldn’t comment on how much the pitch was acquired for, but sources say it was in the high six- to low seven-figure range.

The plot sounds vaguely familiar (I never saw the The Dictator, but didn’t something like that happen?) but this movie might mark a shift away from the more political themes and over-the-top dramatics of his recent films.

Here’s SBC in his full The Dictator costume, stealing the scene at the 2012 Oscars red carpet:

Previously: Sacha Baron Cohen Wears Flip Flops to Meet Israeli President Shimon Peres
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Latest Film, ‘The Dictator,’ Disappoints Critics

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The Dictator star Sacha Baron Cohen kept it breezy and casual for his meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres, opting for flip flops, cropped pants, and an unbuttoned shirt. The president went for a more formal look, rocking a black suit, red tie, and dress shoes with high black socks. You know, because he’s president.

Needless to say, Cohen’s four-year-old daughter Olive has had it up to here with her dad embarrassing her in public. (Hi Isla! We loved you in Wedding Crashers!)

(Main photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images; meeting photograph, Facebook)

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The problem is that, unlike Ali G, Borat, and Brüno, Aladeen is less a force of nature than a scripted performance. Despite Baron Cohen’s insistence on giving interviews in character, The Dictator—directed, like Borat and Brüno, by Larry Charles—is entirely fictional. Da Baron has given up da shtick.

A.O. Scott calls the film lazy in the New York Times, adding that The Dictator “gestures halfheartedly toward topicality and, with equal lack of conviction, toward pure, anarchic silliness.”

If it’s any consolation, here’s SBC in character, falling off a camel for real at the Cannes Film Festival:

(photo credit: TAL COHEN/AFP/GettyImages)

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• Relatedly, mensch alert: Dustin Hoffman called paramedics after seeing a jogger collapse in Hyde Park.

• At a press conference, Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest character, Admiral General Aladeen, said he put Mel Gibson in charge of the fictional Republic of Wadiya’s Museum of Intolerance.

• Brooklyn Hummus manufacturer Flaum Appetizing will pay $577,000 in back wages to 20 former workers.

• Actor, writer, and radio host Seth Rudetsky, known around here as Moses, the original pushy stage mother, has his own channel, launching this summer:

The post Daily Jewce: Mila and Dustin Save the Day, Hummus Manufacturer Pays Up, and more appeared first on Jewcy.