Jim Beach, Queen band manager, announced during the Artist and Manager Awards that actor Sacha Baron Cohen was back on board to write, direct, and star in the Freddie Mercury biopic. However, a recent update on guitarist Brian May's official website states that Beach was merely joking.
Beach stated, "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."
Cohen was set to portray Freddie Mercury until he dropped out of the project in 2013 due to creative differences with the remaining members of Queen. Back in 2013, it was widely reported that Cohen wanted to create an adult-oriented film while Queen wanted a more PG-centric piece.
Some speculations have it that the band claimed Cohen would be too "distracting." Brian May revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone back in 2013 that audiences may not be able to suspend their disbelief and accept Cohen as Freddie Mercury, citing his performances in "Hugo" and "The Dictator."
Despite not returning to the film, Cohen will next be seen in "Grimsby" and the 2016 sequel to Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland."
Since his departure from the project, Ben Whishaw, famous for playing the technological genius "Q" in the recent James Bond film "Skyfall," would be taking over to portray Mercury. His involvement in the Freddie Mercury film has not yet gone forward.
When asked by Time Out back in August 2014 about taking on the role of music icon, Whishaw stated, "Actually, I don't know what's happening, it seems to be on a back burner. It was going, then there were problems getting the script working."
