Sacha Baron Cohen Is THE DICTATOR

Respect the beard… and the SASHA BARON COHEN! Mr. Cohen if you’re nasty!

(If you don’t get that unsolicited Janet Jackson reference then we can no longer be friends!)

The Huffington Post has debuted this first “military” look of Sacha Baron Cohen in Paramount Pictures THE DICTATOR.

About a Hussein-like dictator who gets secretly replaced by a lookalike goat herder and now must find new meaning in a life in New York City, the film is inspired by “Zabibah and the King,” a book about a benevolent dictator that was revealed to be written by Hussein himself.

Baron Cohen will star as both the dictator and herder, and last month, it was announced that Anna Faris will play the NYC organic store owner who opens his eyes to new possibilities.

The book itself is about a benevolent, beloved king who falls in love with a beautiful, victimized girl who was raped by her cruel husband. Believe it or not, it’s a subtle allegory for Iraq and the United States — the king (based, obviously, on Saddam) is the peaceful Iraq, while the cruel, rapist husband is the Gulf War-waging United States.

The log line from Paramount, the film’s production home, turns subverts the premise, saying, “The film 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.”

Directed by Larry Charles, the film hits theaters May 11th, 2012.