Here’s your first look at Dominic Cooper in Lee Tamahori’s 80’s-set thriller “The Devil’s Double” where the actor will play both Uday Hussein, the eldest son of Saddam, and an army lieutenant named Latif Yahia, a childhood friend of Uday’s who is eventually blackmailed into being his body double.
Adapted for the screen by Michael Thomas from Yahia’s autobiography on the whole ordeal, the film follows Latif as he is forced to become a double for one of Iraq’s most powerful and hated men — learning to walk, talk and look like him as well as experiencing the extravagant lifestyle that comes with it. However, in Sarrab (Ludivine Sagnier), Uday’s notorious concubine, he finds an ally in his attempt to escape the lifestyle that is forced upon him after his family’s lives were threatened. As the website’s motto reads, Latif has to “play the part or suffer the consequences.”
“It’s a gangster film with no limits,” Cooper told Total Film’s print edition. “Uday has everything at his fingertips in a lawless society where he’s in complete control. He’s a gangster who loves cars, money, women, drugs… He was a seriously messed-up fucker.”
Sounds like (a) fascinating role(s) for Cooper and ambitious, to say the least, for an actor who hasn’t exactly had a breakout role yet. He’ll next been seen in Stephen Frears’ Cannes entry “Tamara Drewe” and just scored the role of Howard Stark in Joe Johnston’s “Captain America: The First Avenger.”
Production on the Belgian-backed project began earlier this year in Malta with the project offered up at this year’s Berlin Film Market for what looks likely to be a 2011 release.