Netflix has revealed the premiere date and some first look photos for its limited drama series The Spy, starring Sacha Baron Cohen (Les Miserables). The true story will take a look at the Israeli spy Eli Cohen, a distant relative of Sacha Baron Cohen on his father’s side. The series is being written and directed by Gideon Raff, who also created the Israeli drama Prisoners of War, the series that Homeland was based on. Deadline reports the following synopsis for the series:
The Spy is inspired by the story of legendary former Mossad agent Eli Cohen (Baron Cohen), who successfully goes undercover in Syria in the early 1960s. Cohen becomes close enough to ambitious military leaders and their rich friends to earn a game-changing level of trust about Syria’s biggest anti-Israel secret initiatives.
Baron Cohen’s Eli Cohen is a man who wants nothing more than to be of service to his country, but he does his job so well that he finds it hard to strip off his double identity. Cast also includes Noah Emmerich (The Americans) who plays Dan Peleg, Eli’s Mossad handler who tires to ease his own guilt over the sacrifices Eli makes, Hadar Ratzon Rotem (Homeland) as Eli’s wife, Nadia, who is left to raise their family on her own and knows something isn’t right about her husband’s government job, and Waleed Zuaiter (Colony) as Amin Al-Hafz, a military officer who thinks he’s found the perfect ally in the undercover Cohen.
This sounds like an interesting premise, and I’m always interested in Baron Cohen as a dramatic actor. Check out the photos from the series above and below, and let us know if you’re interested in this political series.
The Spy hits Netflix on September 6th.
