Sacha Baron Cohen to star in Netflix drama The Spy
Baron Cohen will play legendary Israeli secret agent Eli Cohen
Sacha Baron Cohen will be reinventing himself as an Israeli secret agent in Netflix drama The Spy.
The series tells the story of Eli Cohen, a real-life Israeli spy who operated in Syria in the 1960s, and whose legacy lives on in the Middle East today.
Cohen embedded himself into Syrian high society and rose through the ranks of the country’s politics to become Chief Adviser to the Minister of Defence. He was eventually caught by the Syrian regime, sentenced to death and publicly hanged in a Damascus square in 1965.
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The Spy is being written and directed by Gideon Raff, whose Israeli thriller Prisoners of War inspired Homeland.
Baron Cohen, who created comedy characters Ali G and Borat, currently stars in Seth Rogen’s Hilarity for Charity on Netflix.
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The actor and his wife Isla Fisher made headlines in 2015 for their $1 million charity donation to support victims of the conflict in Syria.
A release date for The Spy, which will be made up of six episodes, has not yet been announced.
