Sacha Baron Cohen Set To Play Queen’s Front Man Freddie Mercury In Biopic

Sacha Baron Cohen (Borrat) has been cast to play Queen front man Freddie Mercury in a new biopic focusing on his band’s formative years, leading up to Queen’s appearance at Live Aid in 1985.

Deadline broke the news say:

This is the first time the surviving members of Queen–Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon–have licensed songs and music publishing rights for a movie about the band and they formed Queen Films to be part of the production team on the film.

Cohen who is known for his more sillier roles, is actually a pretty damn good choice to play the legend who at times was kind of silly himself. It’s unknown if Cohen will actually perform any songs. It’s also a big question as to who’ll be cast as his band mates.

The movie is currently being written by peter Morgan who’s written “Frost/Nixon,” “The Last King of Scotland,” and “Hereafter.”

Currently, the film does not have a title, director or release date, but has a distributor – GK Films – and the backing of Queen’s surviving members Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon. The right to this film package includes the songs Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions , Another One Bites The Dust and You’re My Best Friend.

It’s interesting to note that this will be the third time Cohen has played a homosexual character onscreen. He previously played a gay Formula One driver in “Talladega Nights,” and 2009’s “Bruno” was structured entirely around his flamboyant fashion guru character from “Da Ali G Show.”

Source: Deadline