Major news coming out of
Deadline last night had
Sacha Baron Cohen, the unorthodox 38 year old Brit behind eccentrics 'Ali Gi', 'Bruno' and 'Borat', attached to a biopic of the charismatic late Queen frontman
Freddie Mercury, in a new film produced by Graham King's GK Films and Robert De Niro's Tribeca Productions. Genius, yeah? Cohen has the fearlessness of Mercury that is clear from every role in his filmography. He is certainly a showman, a performer and a man of boundless energy. Like Mercury, he lives on the reactions of the general public to heighten his persona and well, he kinda looks like the legendary singer too, especially in his Borat get-up above. Certainly they have a similar figure, and I can't imagine any actor working today who has as much physical resemblance or is better suited for this. At this point it's unknown whether Cohen will go the 'Walk the Line' route of providing vocals as besides his brief turn in
Sweeney Todd (where he stole a scene from Johnny Depp, no less) we haven't seen his X-Factor audition yet, if you will. But then, there is no-one that's alive or dead who had the voice range of Mercury. Dramatic wise, his CV is also a little lightweight. Not that I think he can't do this because I firmly believe guys like Cohen are capable of anything - it's just this part will challenge him to go where he has never gone before as an actor. I think he can handle it - if he can convince the general public he was a crazy television presenter from Kazakhstan, then Mercury's a doddle right?
We are told surviving Queen members
Brian May, Roger Taylor and
John Deacon will be involved in the production, and have agreed to lend their famous tunes We Will Rock You, Bohemian Raphosdy, You're My Best Friend and We Are The Champions, among others - for the production. Sadly, the movie will cover several years of Mercury's life - including the early formation of Queen, their early trials and tribulations, before culminating in their famous Live Aid performance of 1985 - which sounds to me like a family photo album movie. i.e. just like 99% of the musical biopics we are fed every year.
This is where the project falls down for me, and then I hear
Peter Morgan is scripting, so I'm throwing out the red alert. So just like Frost/Nixon, just like The Damned United, just like The Queen, just like The Special Relationship - we will be a fly on the wall to interesting historical events whose dramatic punch is sucked out of the room by a very by-the-book, emotionless writer who doesn't know how to do anything but write caricatures of public figures, and doesn't know how to write material that gets to the real heart and soul of them. He's simply been bailed out by the powerhouses of Michael Sheen, Frank Langella and Helen Mirren in previous films to cover this flaw in his writing. From the sounds of things, Morgan has yet to complete the screenplay with a production start scheduled for next year. No director yet attached. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGUdjHUVd18&feature=fvst Producer King said;
Queen is one of the greatest rock bands of all time, and a music brand all unto itself, he said in a statement. Freddie Mercury was an awe-inspiring performer, so with Sacha in the starring role coupled with Peters screenplay and the support of Queen, we have the perfect combination to tell the real story behind their success.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DuoBTJdmds&feature=fvst http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahKp51Lfwpw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaZpZQG2z10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JszN7h84TXs