Sacha Baron Cohen, the British comic actor known for his satirical comedies, is set to play a fictional dictator in a movie inspired by a novel written by Saddam Hussein.

Set for release in the summer next year, the film, The Dictator, tells the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed, Paramount Pictures said.

The movie is inspired by a romance novel called Zabibah and the King, in which the heroine of the novel overcomes difficulties to meet with her savior. The book is set in 600 A.D. and it is unclear if the movie too will be set in the same period or will be loosely interpreted.

The film will be directed by Sacha’s old associate Larry Charles, who directed his earlier films: Borat and Bruno.

Sacha’s Borat, the story of a Kazakh journalist bumbling his way through the United States tells a mocking tale of today’s world. However, his second venture, Bruno did not do too well at the box office. Hopefully his treatment of the Iraqi dictator’s love story about the oppressed will be better received.

Saddam Hussein wrote four novels in all under the pseudonym, ‘the author’ during his dictatorship and all of them achieved great success.