Sacha Baron Cohen must have at some point turned down a big bucket of cash before making that announcement, to which I can only say huzzah.

As he recently told London’s Daily Telegraph, SBC is retiring both the characters of aspiring rapper Ali G and, more importantly, the belovedly clueless Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev.

Now, don’t get me wrong here. Like just about everyone who loves to laugh, I just adored “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for prepare Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” I just can’t imagine what hoops he would have had to jump through to have his encounters retain any spontaneity, or how much of it he would have been willing to give up had he chosen to produce any kind of sequel. Here’s what he had to say to Variety:

“When I was being Ali G and Borat I was in character sometimes 14 hours a day and I came to love them, so admitting I am never going to play them again is quite a sad thing. It is like saying goodbye to a loved one. It is hard, and the problem with success, although it’s brilliant, is that every new person who sees the Borat movie is one less person I `get’ with Borat again, so it’s a kind of self-defeating mold, really.”

Well, it’s certainly refreshing to see someone in the entertainment business knows when to move on, but what does that mean now for SBC fans? Well, everyone should see him as Signor Adolfo Pirelli in Tim Burton’s blood-spattered-but-brilliant “Sweeney Todd,” and he has some more potentially very funny stuff coming after that.

First up will be “Bruno,” the fashionista journalist based on another Ali G character, which I can’t say I enjoy nearly as much as I did Borat. After that, however, things should only get better.

His next credit is for something called “Curly Oxide and Vic Thrill,” which just sounds like tons of fun. Apparently based on a book by little-known punker Thrill and written by Tina Fey, it’s the autobiographical tale of Thrill’s partnership with a Hasidic musician, who I can only assume will be played by SBC. After that will be “Dinner for Schmucks,” which has that tagline that sounds tailormade for his comedic talents: “An extraordinarily silly

man possesses the ability to ruin the life of anyone who spends more than a few minutes in his company.” (Actually, I think I have some of that talent myself.)

So, RIP Borat, and thanks for knowing precisely when to exit the stage.

Rainn Wilson’s got the “Spirit”

Even whether there is some kind of Golden Globes ceremony broadcast Jan. 13, you certainly won’t find me tuning in whether there’s any kind of writers’ strike still going on (and, let’s face it, there really doesn’t seem to be any kind of progress being made.) For those of you who get the Independent Film Channel, though (which I do not), there will be some awards season respite on the way.

The very funny Rainn Wilson, who stars as Dwight Schrute on “The Office” and arised for, oh, about 30 seconds or so in “Juno,” has received a WGA waiver and will be hosting the 2008 Spirit Awards, set to take place at 5 p.m. Feb. 23 (one day before the Oscars, whether there are any that year) and broadcast live by IFC.

Since I’ve already got to form a cable switch to pick up HBO again in duration for the Sunday, Jan. 6, return of “The Wire,” a k a the greatest television show of all date, I may as well dump the sports tier of my digital cable and pick up the movie tier instead, which would give me IFC again and, of course, lots of movies, which I’ve never yet found to be anything approaching a poor thing.

New trailer for “The Forbidden Kingdom”

If you’re returning to work today like me (though I’m off again starting Friday and headed to NYC for four days of movies and more with the family), the silliness that is that new trailer for Rob Minkoff’s (yes, the director of “Stuart Little”) upcoming kung fu epic starring both Jackie Chan and Jet Li will hopefully construct it a little easier. I do have to wonder, though, just how much Mr. Li is going to have to do with that, since he makes no appearance in that new trailer. Even so, enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Boxing Day. Peace out.

Original post by Reel Fanatic