Actor Sacha Baron Cohen announced on Monday that he was dropping out of plans to star as Freddie Mercury in a biopic about the Queen vocalist's life. Cohen cited creative differences with the surviving members of the band as his reason for dropping out.
The "Borat" actor has been associated with the role of Mercury since 2010, when Queen guitarist/honcho Brian May made the official announcement. The choice of actor was praised, citing not only Cohen's physical resemblance to the late rocker, but also his vocal abilities (as he demonstrated last year in the musical film "Les Miserables").
The film was/is set to be produced by Robert De Niro's TriBeCa Productions company, and Cohen immediately handled much of the creative process. The actor brought on Peter Morgan, an Oscar nominee for his screenplays for "The Queen" and "Frost/Nixon," to write the screenplay for the yet-untitled project. Both Tom Hooper ("Les Miserables") and David Fincher ("The Social Network") were recommended by Cohen, but neither auteur nor Morgan won the approval of the band, which is tightly involved with the film's creation.
Queen envisions a family-friendly, PG-rated narrative whereas Cohen was looking to shoot an edgier, R-rated piece on the vocalist's life. Much of Mercury's life remained hidden from the spotlight until his death in 1991. Mercury is now considered an icon in the gay community, but has faced some criticism for failing to stand up for the gay rights cause. Although suffering from HIV, the singer chose not to disclose the illness to the public for several years. Mercury announced that he had AIDS just one day prior to his death of bronchial pneumonia.
