It’s only so long that an actor can stay attached to the same perpetually developing project — and if we’re not talking about those of the “passion” variety, the thing is likely to get tossed aside. This is how things have shaken out with Sacha Baron Cohen and the Freddie Mercury biopic, which Deadline claim is no longer on the actor’s schedule due to a difference in perspective with the surviving members of Queen. The band — old friends of the rock legend, you may know — wished to play it wide (i.e. PG), while the actor, someone with aspirations for the dramatic, hoped to make it a “tell-all” (i.e. R-rated), and neither will, as a result, end up working together.
A shame: not merely since Cohen was a unique pick for the part, physical similarities and all, but when you learn that his spin on the tale would’ve gone taken the “gritty” route, giving audiences that wide-reaching scope on a larger-than-life tale. While it’s hard to picture what they had expected from the creator of Borat and Brüno, Queen‘s control over matters of script and director were proving an impediment; writer Peter Morgan and once-rumored helmer Tom Hooper (along with David Fincher), no matter their credentials, were not to the liking of those ’70s rockers. Away they went.
Despite early reports telling us the project would follow “Queen’s formative years, leading up to the band’s heralded appearance at Live Aid in 1985,” one gets the impression that little (if anything) has developed past this logline. Where do they go, now? With whoever bends to their demands, I suppose.
Does the departure of Cohen dent your expectations for the biopic?