The on-again/off-again film on the life of Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury seems it be more up-in-the-air as ever before.
The film was originally said to have starred Sacha Baron Cohen as the Queen lead singer in what appeared to be a genius casting move; however, after a bit of time, Brian May and Roger Taylor decided against the actor with May saying that he would be too much of a “distraction.”
On Thursday, Queen’s manager Jim Beach spoke at the Artist and Management Awards in London, telling the audience. “You have probably followed the saga of the famous Queen-Freddie Mercury biopic which has been developing in Hollywood for the last seven years. An important breakthrough is that we have now managed to persuade Sacha Baron Cohen to write, produce and direct this movie, and he has also agreed to star.”
Even though the general press took Beach’s quote and ran with it, Brian May has presumably set the record straight on his website in a post about Beach’s award. He mentions “a small joke that Jim threw in during his acceptance speech. He said that, in response to enquiries about the progress on the Freddie feature film, that Sacha Baron Cohen had been re-engaged to write, produce, and direct the film, as well as starring in all four major roles ! I’m afraid some folks might have taken it seriously !”
Beach also said that the new Queen musical We Will Rock You II has been written by Ben Elton. We assume he was serious on that one.
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