TVSquad

Yigal Naor will play Saddam Hussein in a new four-hour miniseries about the Iraq president's reign that lasted from 1979 to 2003.

The miniseries, Between Two Rivers, is being produced by both HBO and the BBC. It will begin shooting this summer in North Africa. It will focus on Saddam's family and his personal relationships. The cast also includes Shoreh Aghdashloo, Christine Stephen-Daly, Said Taghmaoui, Phillip Arditti, Mounir Margoum, Uri Gavriel, Amr Waked and Sasson Gabay.

I wonder if it's too soon for a biopic about Hussein. I don't mean "too soon" in the "we all need time to heal first" sense, I'm speaking of something more pragmatic: is there enough distance now to really do a decent depiction of the former Iraq leader?

Of course, the industry works in such a way that people need to jump onto these things and make them before anyone else does, which renders my point moot, anyway. Still, it'll be interesting to see how this miniseries turns out.