A sequel to the comedy "Borat" has been purchased by Amazon Prime and is expected to hit the streaming platform before November's U.S. election, a source familiar with the deal told AFP Tuesday.
The movie will see British-Jewish comedian and actor Sacha Baron Cohen reprise his cult favorite role as a bumbling and politically incorrect reporter from Kazakhstan, after nearly 15 years.
The 2006 original, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," grossed more than $260 million, winning over critics and spawning endless catchphrases among devoted fans. It even earned an Oscar screenplay nomination.
According to Deadline, the follow-up movie was shot covertly with a minimal crew as soon as coronavirus restrictions eased this summer in the U.S. and overseas. A clip of Cohen apparently filming the movie in Los Angeles popped up on YouTube in August.
The original saw Cohen's anti-Semitic and homophobic fictional journalist blundering across the U.S. in search of cultural enlightenment -- with the joke at the expense of Americans, who nevertheless lapped it up at the box office.
The sequel will again see Cohen "going undercover to get people to reveal their true selves and their often unflattering biases, with only the slightest provocation," the Deadline report said.
(The apparent filming of the second Borat movie in LA)
The controversial satirist's anarchic, gonzo-style comedy has led to the creation of multiple celebrated TV and movie characters, such as his wannabe rapper Ali G and gay Austrian TV presenter Bruno.
Cohen -- who also made the 2012 movie "The Dictator" starring himself as a Muammar Gaddafi-style despot -- was recently seen pranking public figures in the TV series "Who is America?"
In one memorable scene from the show, Cohen, playing Israeli anti-terror expert Col. Erran Morad, hoodwinked Republican politicians into endorsing a made-up plan to train preschoolers in how to fire a gun, although the show drew mixed reviews.
Sarah Palin, the former vice-presidential nominee and ex-Alaska governor, slammed the comedian's "evil, exploitative, sick 'humor.'"
The actor-comedian has also taken on dramatic roles, including the lead role in the 2019 Netflix miniseries "The Spy."
In the show, he played lionized Mossad agent Eli Cohen, who posed for years as a Syrian businessman in Damascus while sending intelligence back to Israel and was eventually caught and hanged by the regime in 1965.
Cohen also plays a leading role in Aaron Sorkin's Oscar-tipped drama "The Trial of the Chicago 7," streaming on Netflix next month.