Warner Bros are producing a movie based on the classic comic character by Lee Falk (Phantom fame), Mandrake the magician. The character will be portrayed by Sacha Baron Cohen and the film will be directed by Elan Cohen.
Indian kids of the 80s and 90s could very well relate to this character in the Indrajaal comics, translated in Hindi.
Sacha Baron Cohen
Sacha Noam Baron Cohen (born 13 October 1971) is a British actor, comedian, and screenwriter. A graduate of Christ’s College, Cambridge, Baron Cohen is most widely known for creating and portraying four fictional characters: Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Brüno Gehard and Admiral General Aladeen. Like his idol Peter Sellers, he uses a variety of accents and guises for his characters.
In most of his routines, Baron Cohen’s characters interact with unsuspecting people who do not realise they are being set up for comic situations and self-revealing ridicule. His other work includes voicing King Julien XIII in the Madagascar film series (2005–2012) and appearing in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Hugo (2011) and Les Misérables (2012). He made a cameo as a BBC News Anchor in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013). In 2016, he played an English football hooligan brother of an MI6 spy in the comedy film Grimsby, and co-starred as Time in the fantasy sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass.
Baron Cohen was named Best Newcomer at the 1999 British Comedy Awards for The 11 O’Clock Show, and since then, his work has been further recognised with two BAFTA Awards for Da Ali G Show, several Emmy nominations, a nomination for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay, and a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his work in the feature film Borat. After the release of Borat, Baron Cohen stated that because the public had become too familiar with the characters, he would retire Borat and Ali G. Similarly, after the release of Brüno, Baron Cohen stated he would also retire the title character. At the 2012 British Comedy Awards, he received the Outstanding Achievement Award, accepting the award while reprising his Ali G character. In 2013, he received the BAFTA Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy.
Mandrake The Magician
Mandrake the Magician is a syndicated newspaper comic strip, created by Lee Falk (before he created The Phantom). Mandrake began publication on June 11, 1934. Phil Davis soon took over as the strip’s illustrator, while Falk continued to script. The strip is distributed by King Features Syndicate.
Mandrake, along with the Phantom Magician in Mel Graff’s The Adventures of Patsy, are regarded by comics historians as the first superheroes of comics. Comics historian Don Markstein writes, “Some people say Mandrake the Magician, who started in 1934, was comics’ first superhero.”
Davis worked on the strip until his death in 1964, when Falk recruited current artist Fred Fredericks. [3] With Falk’s death in 1999, Fredericks became both writer and artist. The Sunday Mandrake strip ended December 29, 2002. The daily strip ended mid-story on July 6, 2013 when Fred Fredericks retired, and a reprint of D220 “Pursuit of the Cobra” from 1995 began on July 8, 2013.
