The first photos of Dominic Cooper playing the dual roles of Uday Hussein and his body double have appeared online, and he's looking rather good in the role.

Lee Tamahori's film The Devil's Double tells the true story of Latif Yahia, a soldier who is handpicked to play the double of Saddam Hussein's son, to play him during public appearances and protect him from assassination attempts and is adapted from his autobiography.

It wasn't a fun time either, for apart from Uday Hussein being a complete psychopath, Latif Yahia was forced to be the body double and what he saw behind the scenes of Hussein's lifestyle was incredibly shocking, a world of corruption, violence and debauchery.

The story of The Devil's Double follows the story of the soldier Latif Yahia who looks incredibly like the son of Saddam Hussein, Uday, and is forced to become his body double under threat to his family. While he plays the part of the double he's drawn into his extravagant and terrifying lifestyle. However he sees a way out, and with the help of the concubine of Uday, he may just be able to find a way to get himself and his family to freedom.

The film is directed by Lee Tamahori and adapted by Michael Thomas from the books by Latif Yahia, I Was Saddam's Son and, unsuprisingly, The Devil's Double ( / ). Dominic Cooper plays the dual leads, and in the photos that The Playlist have you can see the similarities.

My only concerns are that it doesn't seem that long ago from the reign of the Hussein's and from the terrible acts that Uday was responsible for. What we can hope for is that Tamahori hasn't approached this in a disrespectful way, for the people who suffered under their regime may well see or get to hear of this film, so while it needs to entertain, it also needs to educate and be respectful. There's quite a lot of pressure on the film.

There's also a lot of pressure on Dominic Cooper, having to play two real life characters, one of whom is still alive and on whose biography the film is based. From the sounds of it he's enjoying the role, according to his comments in the article:

"It's a gangster film with no limits...Uday has everything at his fingertips in a lawless society where he's in complete control. He's a gangster who loves cars, money, women, drugs... He was a seriously messed-up [expletive removed - Richard]."

I'm still not sure what way the film is going to play out and how it's going to portray both real life characters, but so far it's sounding very interesting from the cinematic point of view, I just wonder how it's going to play out from a factual view, and how it will portray the acts that Uday was responsible for.