Queen’s Brian May Calls Sacha Baron Cohen ‘an Arse’ Over Freddie Mercury Biopic Dispute
Alex Stedman
News Editor, Variety.com
@a_sted
APRIL 10, 2016 | 09:35AM PT

Sacha Baron Cohen recently explained why he left a Freddie Mercury biopic in which he was set to star as the late Queen singer. But now, Queen lead guitarist Brian May is sharing the band’s side of the story.

In March, Cohen told Howard Stern that he left the biopic, which he had been attached to since 2010, because the band wanted a PG-rated story that showed how Queen pulled together after Mercury’s death. Cohen, however, wanted to focus on Mercury’s “wild” life in a darker story.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, May, who was working on the biopic with Cohen, disputed those claims and slammed the actor for his behavior.

“Sacha became an arse,” he said. “We had some nice times with Sacha kicking around ideas, but he went off and told untruths about what happened.”

May added that the band had no intention in cleaning up the story: “Why would he go away and say that we didn’t want to make a gritty film?”

“Are we the kind of people who have ever ducked from the truth?” he went on. “I don’t think so.”

May also said that the band decided Cohen wasn’t right for the role “for very good reasons, which will become apparent if you watch what he’s done recently.”

The biopic is continuing with the support of May and Roger Taylor. It’s still looking for the actor to play Mercury, but May said they already have a candidate they’re eying: Ben Whishaw.

“He’s fabulous,” May said, “a real actor.”

Queen Movie Amping Up With Bryan Singer & Rami Malek As Freddie Mercury
by Mike Fleming Jr
November 4, 2016 3:16pm

EXCLUSIVE: Bryan Singer is in talks to direct Bohemian Rhapsody, the long-in-the-works movie about the seminal British rock band Queen, with Mr. Robot‘s Rami Malek playing frontman Freddie Mercury. The film is coming back together and is on the fast track at 20th Century Fox and New Regency with original producer Graham King and his GK Films.

Fox and New Regency have stepped up for the joint project in the latest maneuver for a movie that has been in development with King for eight years. The most recent script, which focuses on the band and its iconic lead singer, is from The Theory Of Everything scribe Anthony McCarten. King and Jim Beach are producers, and Denis O’Sullivan is exec producer. Original Queen bandmembers Brian May and Roger Taylor will serve as music producers. It’s being eyed to shoot early next year.

On the film side, Singer has been busy guiding Fox’s X-Men franchise, most recently this summer’s X-Men: Apocalypse which grossed $543.9 million worldwide, and he also has been working on another long-in-the works project for Fox, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. He’s been in tentpole mode with these, so this pic would be a return to a more character-driven territory like with The Usual Suspects and Apt Pupil. He’s repped by WME and attorney Dave Feldman.

Malek won the Lead Drama Actor Emmy this summer as the star of USA Network’s hit hacker series Mr Robot. His film credits include this year’s Buster’s Mal Heart which was at Toronto, and he was in Short Term 12 with Brie Larson. He’s now shooting the Papillon remake with Charlie Hunnam. Malik is with WME and Brillstein Entertainment.

Previous incarnations of the project had been originally rooted at Sony. Sacha Baron Cohen had been aboard as Mercury and Peter Morgan writing, before creative differences scotched that plan. Later, Ben Whishaw was to star with Dexter Fletcher directing, but more creative issues nixed that team-up

King won the Best Picture Oscar for The Departed, and next up for his GK Films is the Robert Zemeckis-helmed Allied at Paramount starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard which bows November 23.

Fox and New Regency of course teamed on a pair of Oscar Best Picture winners in 12 Years A Slave and Birdman, and most recently The Revenant which earned Leonardo DiCaprio a Best Actor Oscar and Alejandro G. Iñárritu his second consecutive Best Director Oscar.

Ben Hardy (X-Men: Apocalpyse), Gwilym Lee (The Hollow Crown) and Joe Mazzello (The Social Network) have been cast alongside Rami Malek in the upcoming 20th Century Fox film Bohemian Rhapsody, the long-in-the-works movie about seminal British rock band Queen which Bryan Singer is helming. Deadline’s Mike Fleming previously exclusively broke the story announced that Rami Malek (Mr. Robot) will portray frontman Mercury.

Hardy — who had been rumored in the British press for quite some time as joining the pic — will play Roger Taylor, the drummer who also wrote or co-wrote several songs including “Under Pressure” and “These Are The Days of Our Lives.” Lee will play Brian May, the lead guitarist who co-founded the band with the late great Freddie Mercury. Mazzello will portray John “Deacy” Deacon, the bass guitarist who also composed such hits as “You’re My Best Friend” and “Another One Bites the Dust”; he also handled the band’s financials.

Justin Haythe (Red Sparrow, Revolutionary Road) penned the script, with Graham King, Jim Beach, and Bryan Singer producing. Denis O’Sullivan, Arnon Milchan and Jane Rosenthal are executive producers. Kira Goldberg is overseeing the project for 20th Century Fox.

The Fox/New Regency/GK Films production will go before the cameras this fall and is slated for U.S. release December 25, 2018.

Lee is repped by Gersh, Authentic and Hamilton Hodell.

There are few people in music history as recognizable as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury — and not just his face, but his four-octave voice and flamboyant physicality. Rami Malek is well aware of that fact.

“When you’re able to open your eyes and see a different person staring back at you in the mirror,” Malek says, recalling his first time in hair and makeup, “it’s a very affirming moment.”

The Mr. Robot star is preparing to play Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody (out Dec. 25, 2018), the Bryan Singer-directed film that chronicles Queen from 1970, when Mercury teamed with Brian May and Roger Taylor, until the band’s performance at Live Aid in 1985, six years before the singer died of complications from AIDS. Malek channels Mer*cury’s look from that global-*concert event. Resembling the legendary musician, he says, “only adds to the level of confidence that one would need to play Freddie Mercury.”

Parts of the movie that feature singing will utilize either Malek’s own voice or recordings of Mercury, with a sound alike filling in the gaps.“We’re going to use Freddie as much as possible and use myself as much as possible,” Malek says.“I’m in Abbey Road [Studios] right now if that should say anything to you. I’m not working on my acting.”

Singer, who last helmed 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse, describes his approach to Bohemian Rhapsody as “not a traditional biopic” but rather a story honoring the music, an angle hinted at by the film’s limited time frame. “It won’t just be the dark Freddie story, but that being said, that also will be honored,” Singer says. “It’s about collaboration. It’s a celebration.”

See the first photo of Malek as Mercury — released Tuesday, on what would have been the singer’s 71st birthday — above.

Queen Biopic 'Bohemian Rhapsody' Adds Lucy Boynton (Exclusive)
9:45 AM PDT 9/6/2017 by Rebecca Ford

Rami Malek, Ben Hardy, Joe Mazzello and Gwilym Lee are starring as the members of the iconic band.
Rising star Lucy Boynton has signed on for Bryan Singer's Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

Rami Malek already is attached to portray legendary frontman Freddie Mercury while Ben Hardy, Joe Mazzello and Gwilym Lee are playing the other band members, Roger Taylor, John Deacon and Brian May, respectively.

Boynton will play Freddie Mercury’s lifelong companion, Mary Austin. While they lived together in London for several years, he later had relationships with male lovers, and told Austin of his homosexuality. Austin and Mercury remained friends. He wrote several songs about Austin, including "Love of My Life."

Graham King's GK Films banner is producing for 20th Century Fox and New Regency. Justin Haythe (Red Sparrow, Revolutionary Road) penned the script with King, Jim Beach and Singer producing. Denis O'Sullivan, Arnon Milchan and Jane Rosenthal are executive producers. Kira Goldberg is overseeing the project for Fox.

The production start date is scheduled for September. The film is slated for U.S. release on Dec. 25, 2018.

Boynton was recently seen in another music-themed film, the critically acclaimed Sing Street. She will soon be seen in IFC's Rebel in the Rye and FOX's Murder on the Orient Express as well as Apostle which she recently completed lensing on. She is repped by CAA and United Agents.

Aidan Gillen and Tom Hollander are the latest to join Bohemian Rhapsody, according to the official Queen Twitter account.

Rami Malek will play frontman Freddie Mercury in the Queen biopic, which is being produced by Graham King's GK Films banner for 20th Century Fox and New Regency.

Gillen and Hollander will be playing Queen managers. Gillen will play John Reid, Queen’s manager from 1975-1978, while Hollander will play Jim Beach, Queen’s long-time manager, who took over in 1978.

The duo join Joe Mazzello, Ben Hardy and Gwilym Lee, who are playing Queen band members, as well as Lucy Bolton playing Freddie Mercury’s lifelong companion, Mary Austin..

Justin Haythe (Red Sparrow, Revolutionary Road) penned the script with King, Jim Beach and Singer producing. Denis O'Sullivan, Arnon Milchan and Jane Rosenthal are executive producers. Kira Goldberg is overseeing the project for Fox.

Gillen is best known for his role as Littlefinger on HBO's Game of Thrones. Hollander will next be seen in the upcoming Andy Serkis feature Breathe.

Bohemian Rhapsody is slated for U.S. release on Dec. 25, 2018.

Fox has halted production on the studio's Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, due to the "unexpected unavailability" of director Bryan Singer.

Rami Malek is starring as the legendary frontman Freddie Mercury in the movie that had been filming in London.

"Twentieth Century Fox Film has temporarily halted production on Bohemian Rhapsody due to the unexpected unavailability of Bryan Singer," reads Fox's full statement. The crew received force majeure letters today, says one insider.

Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Singer failed to return to set after the Thanksgiving holiday break, leaving producers nervous about the state of the production and talking about potentially replacing him.

In a statement to the BBC, a rep for the director says his absence is due to "a personal health matter concerning Bryan and his family." However, sources say that filming on the biopic has not been easy. For example, insiders tell THR that producers and his star had grown tired of Singer's behavior, which saw him routinely show up late to set. Another source has said that a cinematographer had to step in and direct during a previous "non-showing."

This is not first time that Singer has disappeared during a production. He momentarily vanished during the shooting of X-Men: Apocalypse and during Superman Returns.

Bohemian Rhapsody is set to hit theaters on Dec. 25, 2018