Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Sacha Baron Cohen Signs on to Play ‘Mandrake the Magician’

British funnyman Sacha Baron Cohen has signed on to play the classic 1934 comic book illusionist “Mandrake the Magician.”

Based on Lee Falk’s newspaper comic strip of the same name, Variety reports that Cohen will play the mysterious Leon Mandrake, a magician that uses hypnotism to fight villains, “gangsters, mad scientists, extraterrestrials and characters from other dimensions.” The project, more than a decade in the making, will be directed by Etan Cohen, who made his directorial debut in “Get Hard” and who’s writing credits include “Tropic Thunder,” “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” and “Men in Black 3.”

Cohen has proven to be a master character actor, with memorable roles as “Borat,” “Ali G” and “The Dictator,” he can currently be seen as Time in “Alice Through the Looking Glass.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version