To do 'Borat 2,' or not to do 'Borat 2,' that is the question

Posted Friday, February 9, 2007 at 4:16 PM Central

by John Couture

If a movie costs next to nothing to make and went on to gross in excess of $125 million (and counting) at the box office, you'd think a sequel would be a no-brainer, right? So thought News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch who spilled the beans a little too early about the sequel to Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan yesterday in front of a group of journalists.

Today, 20th Century Fox backtracked from their boss' premature words. The reality is that a contract has not been signed and there might be some residual animosity between Sacha Baron Cohen and the studio. Fox passed on a movie about another of Cohen's characters Bruno, which is being produced at Universal.

Despite the huge piles of money that Borat made, a sequel will be difficult to get off the ground in that the first film led to a slew of lawsuits from unsuspecting people who were in the first film and didn't realize the nature of the film they were in.