Sacha Baron Cohen Confirms New Ali G Movie

With Sacha Baron Cohen popping up in very public places recently in his fictional alter ego Ali G, speculation has been running wild that he had a new project involving the character. Sure enough he does: A new film called Ali G: Who Iz I?

Baron Cohen himself (or, uh Ali G himself) announced the news in a video on Instagram confirming (and forgive me for this quote) “Dey haz finally made a documentary about me. And it ain’t like dat crap one about da penguins, dis one haz got at least twice as much animal sex. Ali G: Who Iz I? Cominatcha on 10.23 wotever dat means.”

Watch Baron Cohen’s (G’s) message below:

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Ali G originated as a character back in the ’90s, when Baron Cohen created him to spoof British DJs who talked in hip ho slang. The character appeared on several British TV shows before getting his own series, Da Ali G Show, starting in the year 2000. When the show was imported by HBO, it launched Baron Cohen’s career in the U.S., and also helped popularize to his other two big characters, Borat and Bruno.

Baron Cohen previously teamed with Amazon for the Borat sequel, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, which premiered on Prime Video in October of 2020. Unlike that film, Ali G: Who Iz I? is getting a big release in theaters from Amazon prior to its eventual streaming release.

This is not the first Ali G movie; way back in 2002, Baron Cohen wrote and starred in Ali G Indahouse. The big difference there — and perhaps the key problem there — was that the film was not a mockumentary like Da Ali G Show (and, later, like Borat and Bruno). It was a straightforward comedy film starring Baron Cohen as the Ali G character. Although it performed reasonably well overseas, it did not get a full theatrical release in the United States and basically went straight to DVD.

Ali G: Who Iz I? is now scheduled to open in theaters on October 23.