Warner Bros. has signed Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat:  Cultural Leanings of America…) to play Mandrake the Magician in a theatrical feature, according to The Tracking Board.  Cohen is known as a comedic actor, but is practiced at being exotic, and definitely has the look.  Warners has also attached a director, Etan Cohen (Get Hard), who’s perhaps best known as a writer (Tropic Thunder, Men in Black 3).

The King Features property has been bouncing around for well over a decade, with plans for a “big canvas adventure story" back in 2002 (see “Mandrake to Make Movie Magic”), and Chuck Russell, who directed The Mask, attached to direct in 2007 (see “Russell Signed for ‘Mandrake’ Movie”).  Warner Bros. picked up the rights in 2012 (see “Warner Bros. Nabs ‘Mandrake’”).

The property originated in 1934 as a Lee Falk (who also created The Phantom) newspaper strip. The character has the power to hypnotize, and travels the world solving mysteries.  Warners reportedly plans to modernize the character, with the U.S. government recruiting him for a secret mission.

There was a previous film feature in 1939, over 70(!) years ago. 

If the movie gets made, there’s plenty of Mandrake publishing to tie in.  Dynamite Entertainment has had the comics license since 2010 (see “Dynamite Expands King Features Line”).  The most recent title featuring the characters is Kings Quest (see “Preview: ‘Kings Quest #2’”).

Titan Comics is releasing collections of the newspaper strip (see “Review: ‘Mandrake the Magician: The Sundays Vol. 1 – The Hidden Kingdom of Murderers’ HC”).

And Hermes Press has released a collection of Mandrake comics (see “Alex Raymond, Mandrake,a nd WWII Women in Comics by Trina Robbins”).