Freddie Mercury Biopic With Sacha Baron Cohen Aiming For Spring 2013 Shoot, 2014 Release

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by Charlie Schmidlin
October 15, 2012 11:21 AM
4 Comments

One of the more immediate recognitions of perfect casting in recent years, the news of Sacha Baron Cohen tackling the role of Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury, has excited fans of both talents since the biopic was announced in 2010. Development has stuttered in the interim though, even as the film's producers reinforced the film's active status, but after a confirmation this past summer -- in the form of director Stephen Frears growing close to helming the project -- a new tidbit from Queen guitarist Brian May himself has reignited the discussion even further.

Following Queen's early years as a band through to their 1985 Live Aid performance, the biopic has had the major resource of May taking an intimately involved position within its development, and now a recent meeting with fellow member Roger Taylor and manager Jim Beach has left him with quite the optimistic tone. “Our main agenda was the Freddie film which, I'm happy to tell you, is on course,” May wrote on his website's blog, “Much of our discussion was about contractual things, and determining who is responsible for what.” He thankfully went into further detail than just that, and confirmed “filming is now scheduled to start in the spring, with Sacha Baron Cohen playing Freddie. The film should be ready for release early in 2014.”

No word has been confirmed yet on the directorial choice, but besides clarifying a shooting schedule and distribution release for the Peter Morgan-scripted film (with an additional pass by “Ali” writers Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson), May's sustained contribution towards the project so far signals a promisingly assured approach that could pay off extremely well. Unless the guitarist is enacting some Mike Love-esque sabotage on Mercury's legacy, that is, but considering the creative team's long journey now finally closing in on actual reality, that would be a sick joke indeed. [via The Film Stage]

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4 Comments

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J.J. | October 15, 2012 9:27 PMReply

Great subject matter and great choice for the lead. Not so stoked about the choice for director. High Fidelity and The Grifters were pretty awesome but there isn't much after that.
Daniel | October 15, 2012 2:24 PMReply

Jim Beach is Queen's manager, not a member of the group.
Real | October 15, 2012 1:15 PMReply

Finally! Freddie's story is such an interesting one and I think Cohen is very talented and underrated actor. People tend to dismiss him because of his comic characters but I think he can do a great job as Mercury.
Alan | October 16, 2012 3:42 AM

People don't dismiss him because of his comic characters, they want him to go outside them and prove his dramatic chops with proper film directors. Or maybe by "people" I mean "me."