Freddie Mercury Biopic Gets A New Star: ‘Mr. Robot’s’ Rami Malek Signs On To Long-Awaited Movie About The Queen Frontman
The on-again, off-again Freddie Mercury biopic seems to be back on track once again. Variety reports that Emmy-winning actor Rami Malek (Mr. Robot) will star as Mercury in the long-awaited film about the life of the late Queen frontman, which will be titled Bohemian Rhapsody. Bryan Singer (X-Men: Apocalypse) is slated to direct the project, and this version of the Freddie Mercury project will also have the support of Freddie’s original Queen bandmates, Brian May and Roger Taylor, who will serve as music producers.
Singer posted a teaser of the news on Instagram and included hashtags confirming Malek’s involvement in the project.
Producer Graham King has been trying to get the Freddie Mercury biopic off the ground for years. King originally signed Sacha Baron Cohen to play Mercury, but Cohen’s creative differences with May and Taylor ended that collaboration and the project has been seemingly stalled ever since.
According to Rolling Stone, Cohen, who was originally set to pen the script, produce, direct, and star in the film, revealed that he wanted to make a film that would dig deeper into Mercury’s extreme lifestyle, homosexuality, and drug use, but the Queen members wanted to focus on what happened to the band after the iconic lead singer died of complications of AIDS in 1991.
In an interview with Sirius XM host Howard Stern, Cohen accused one of Mercury’s bandmates of saying it would be “such a great movie because it’s got such an amazing thing that happens in the middle of the movie.” When Cohen asked what happens in the middle of the movie, the unnamed Queen member reportedly replied, “Freddie dies.”
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Brian May explained that Cohen’s ideas about the long-awaited biopic clashed with the rest of the group’s.
“Sacha became an a*se,” May said. “We had some nice times with Sacha kicking around ideas but he went off and told untruths about what happened.”
May previously told Ultimate Classic Rock that Cohen was too well-known for his past movies and that he felt it would hurt the actor’s portrayal of Freddie.
“In the end, we felt that his presence in the movie would be very distracting,” the Queen guitarist said of Cohen.
“What led us to that conclusion was the last three movies that he’s made – The Dictator,Les Miserables, and Hugo – in which he makes outstanding performances, but they’re very much Sacha Baron Cohen performances. And we thought there has to be no distraction in the Freddie movie. You have to really suspend that disbelief – the man who plays Freddie, you have to really believe is Freddie. And we didn’t that could really happen with Sacha.”
At the time, producers said they hoped to get English actor Ben Whishaw to play Freddie Mercury. May called Whishaw “a real actor.”
As for the man who will now play Freddie Mercury, fans will recognize Malek, 35, from his role as hacker Elliot Alderson on USA Network’s Mr. Robot. Earlier this year, Malek won an Emmy Award this year for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the role. In addition, the future Freddie Mercury has appeared as King Akhmenrah in all three films in the Night at the Museum franchise.
'Mr. Robot' star @ItsRamiMalek, Bryan Singer teaming up to tackle Freddie Mercury biopic https://t.co/kiC0Hgcx8G pic.twitter.com/jQfr4qKOnW
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) November 4, 2016
Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, and drummer Roger Taylor formed Queen in 1970. The supergroup went on to record the hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” as well as the anthems “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions.”
Take a look at the video below to see Cohen talking to Stern about his failed incarnation of the Freddie Mercury biopic.
[Featured Image by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images]
