If you only know Dominic Cooper from his singing and dancing in Mamma Mia! or his smooth-talking period role in An Education, you'll have to squint pretty hard to recognize him in The Devil's Double. The British actor isn't just taking on a dual role in the film, based on a true story, but one of those roles is as Uday Hussein, the psychotic and drug-addicted son of Saddam Hussein who was running wild in Iraq in the days before the war with Kuwait. Set in 1987, The Devil's Double stars Cooper as both Hussein and Latifa Yahia, an Iraqi army lieutenant hired to be Uday's body double and dragged into Hussein's world of excess.
Cooper's dual performances have been praised ever since the movie debuted at Sundance earlier this year, and to get a perfect look at exactly the transformation Cooper undergoes in both roles, we're debuting two exclusive new images from The Devil's Double, one of them featuring Cooper in conversation with… well, himself. Check out both of them below-- click on them for the high-res versions-- and also check out the film's trailer and official synopsis. The Devil's Double comes to theaters next month, on July 29; from the looks of it you'll never be able to look at Dominic Cooper quite the same way again.
Based on a gripping, unbelievable true story of money, power and opulent decadence, Lionsgate's THE DEVIL'S DOUBLE takes a white-knuckle ride deep into the lawless playground of excess and violence known as Bagdad, 1987. Summoned from the frontline to Saddam Hussein's palace, Iraqi army lieutenant Latif Yahia (Dominic Cooper) is thrust into the highest echelons of the "royal family" when he's ordered to become the 'fiday' - or body double - to Saddam's son, the notorious "Black Prince" Uday Hussein (also Dominic Cooper), a reckless, sadistic party-boy with a rabid hunger for sex and brutality. With his and his family's lives at stake, Latif must surrender his former self forever as he learns to walk, talk and act like Uday. But nothing could have prepared him for the horror of the Black Prince's psychotic, drug-addled life of fast cars, easy women and impulsive violence. With one wrong move costing him his life, Latif forges an intimate bond with Sarrab (Ludivine Sagnier), Uday's seductive mistress who's haunted by her own secrets. But as war looms with Kuwait and Uday's depraved gangster regime threatens to destroy them all, Latif realizes that escape from the devil's den will only come at the highest possible cost.Featuring a riveting double performance by Dominic Cooper (AN EDUCATION, MAMA MIA) in the roles of Latif Yahia and Uday Hussein, THE DEVIL'S DOUBLE is a dynamic, chilling adaptation of Latif Yahia's autobiographical novel, charting one man's defiant struggle to survive a viper's pit of corruption and brutality. The film is directed by Lee Tamahori (DIE ANOTHER DAY, XXX: STATE OF THE UNION) and written by Michael Thomas (BACKBEAT, SCANDAL).
