According to a recent article in the Hollywood Reporter, there is a major movie in the works about the colourful settler who once lived in Saskatoon. The film will be shot in China. Rob Reiner is one of the producers. Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) will direct.
Cohen was an Oliver Twist type character in London who spent time in reform school as a pickpocket before being sent to Western Canada to learn the values of hard work. In Saskatoon, he won the respect of the city’s Chinese community in the early 1900s when he thwarted a holdup at his favourite eatery, the Alberta Cafe on 20th Street
Cohen moved to Edmonton and became prominent in business and pro-Chinese-revolution circles. After fighting in the First World War, he became a bodyguard of Sun Yat Sen, the first president of the Republic of China.