Sacha Baron Cohen Reportedly Playing MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN For GET HARD Director

The Tracking Board reports that Borat and The Dictator star Sacha Baron Cohen will be playing the lead role in Warner Bros.' Mandrake The Magician, a film based on the popular comic strip by Lee Falk that was created in 1934.

The story centers around the adventures of Mandrake, the illusionist and escape artist with the power to hypnotize his foes. With his companion Lothar, he travels the globe solving mysteries and fighting evildoers – including his twin brother who uses his powers for evil instead than good. Sources say that the plan is to update the character for the 21st century, with Mandrake being recruited by the United States government for a secret mission.

They're definitely going to have to do some serious updating in regards to the Lothar character, but otherwise it's easy to imagine Cohen in a role like this, especially one with the potential to play both a good twin and an evil one. Etan Cohen, who recently wrote and directed Get Hard and wrote Tropic Thunder, is directing from a script by husband and wife screenwriting team of David Peoples (Blade Runner, Unforgiven) and Janet Peoples (Twelve Monkeys) and Puss in Boots writer Tom Wheeler.

The character, who has been described as “America’s first superhero,” is known as a magician whose work is based on an unusually fast hypnotic technique, through which his subjects see illusions when he “gestures hypnotically.” He uses the technique to defeat villains, including gangsters, mad scientists, extraterrestrials, and characters from other dimensions. He has the ability to turn invisible, shapeshift, levitate, and teleport thanks to the powers imbued to him by the hat, cloak, and wand he inherited from his father.

Even though this is based on a character created in the 1930s, I wonder if people will look at this movie as a satire of Marvel Studios' upcoming Doctor Strange. Any big Mandrake fans out there? What do you think about casting Cohen as the title character?