Sacha Baron Cohen Renews Contract With Paramount Even Though Sony Now Owns ‘Grimsby’

Sacha Baron Cohen officially re-upped his first-look deal and contract with Paramount even though his newest comedy, Grimsby, has shifted studios and will now be produced by Sony.  As we’ve previously reported, Grimsby originated from pitch sold last year to Paramount by Cohen and co-writer Phil Johnston, who wrote the indie comedy Cedar Rapids and the immensely popular Disney digitally animated movie Wreck-It-Ralph. Grimsby follows the story of a James Bond-like spy forced to go on the run with his crazy soccer hooligan brother. We had initially supposed Baron might play against type in the spy role, but according to Deadline he will take on the more familiar brother. 

Cohen is very well known for playing eccentric, humorous characters like Borat in Borat, Mr. Thernadier in Les Miserables, and Admiral General Haffaz Aladeen in The Dictator, but is also an active in producing most of the pics he stars in. According to THR, the deal between Paramount and Cohen’s Four By Two Films stipulates the production of at least two movies over three years, which basically means more Cohen all around, most likely in the Borat/Bruno/Dictator mold. The most likely candidates are The Lesbian, comedy about “A billionaire [who] offers a hefty sum of money to a man who can woo & marry his lesbian daughter,” (IMDb) and an untitled Cohen pic that he’s scripting with Peter Baynham (Mortdecai, Hotel Transylvania), Anthony Hines (Bruno, Borat), and Dan Mazer (I Give It A Year).