Has Sacha Baron Cohen decided to return for the biopic on Queen frontman Freddie Mercury? The film has been the subject of a lot of talk with multiple big names coming and going from the project. Cohen was the biggest and most surprising of the bunch...except that he and Mercury are basically dead ringers for one another. But the film couldn't get off the ground because of arguments with the band's surviving members over the tone. However, news broke yesterday that suggested all sides had come to an agreement. Is it true, though? Well...maybe not.
DailyMail reported that Queen's manager, Jim Beach, hit the Artist & Management Awards and said Cohen had been given complete creative control of the film: “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.”
That would be a huge deal given that it would be Cohen's directorial debut, and a total change in attitude from the band's previous stance. Their concern was that audiences wouldn't be able to separate themselves from Cohen's comedic past, thus expecting the film to be a laugher rather than a serious look at Mercury's life.
However, it may have all been a joke. Queen's Brian May took to his website and claimed none of what Beach had to say was true: "but it doesn’t mention a small joke that Jim threw in during his acceptance speech. He said that, in response to enquiries about the progress on the Freddie feature film, that Sacha Baron Cohen had been re-engaged to write, produce, and direct the film, as well as starring in all four major roles ! I’m afraid some folks might have taken it seriously!”
So which one is it? Given how the band felt about the film only recently it's likely that May is being honest here. He had been the most vocal against Cohen's participation, after all. While it would be great to see this project finally get moving with Cohen
