Saddam: the movie

Published Jan 23 2011, 01:08 PM by Peter Keough

The few screen appearances made by Saddam Hussein suggest that, had things turned out a little differently, he might have been a screen legend rather than an infamous tyrant and mass murderer.

His small but pivotal role in "Hot Shots Part Deux" (1992) proved he could touch our hearts even as he tickled our funny bones.

He showed a more nuanced, wistful side when he portrayed the guy renting bowling shoes in "The Big Lebowski" (1998). [see above]

And he demonstrated that he could stretch his range as much as Jim Carrey did in "I Love You Phillip Morris" when he played gay in "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" (1999), stealing every scene he shared with that sinema icon, Satan.

Sadly, though, Saddam thought his proper place was on the great world stage. And the film world is poorer for it.

But if Sasha Baron Cohen has his way, Saddam's screen presence will live on. Cohen has plans to adapt the late sociopathic despot's bestselling novel, "Zabibah and the King," described in a press release as "the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed."

If that's a hit, Disney has plans for animated versions of Saddam's delightful children's picture books including "Where the WMD Things Are,"

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