LONDON: A love story penned by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is set to get the Hollywood treatment.
Paramount Pictures are readying a film based on the book 'Zabibah And The King' and 'Bruno' star Sacha Baron Cohen is in talks to star in the film, reported Sun Online. 'The Dictator' , according to the studio will tell "the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed" .
The story of a powerful medieval ruler who falls in love with a commoner, was a bestseller in Iraq when it released in 2000 and is among the four books that Hussein wrote during his life, said the newspaper in it's report.
Though the works all appeared under the pseudonym 'the author' , they were widely understood to have been written by the former president , who ruled the Arab state for 24 years, between 1979 and 2003.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/Bruno-to-star-in-film-based-on-Saddam-novel/articleshow/7339045.cms