Sacha Baron Cohen set to play Queen frontman Freddie Mercury

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Sacha Baron Cohen set to play Queen frontman Freddie Mercury

In what sounds like one of those too good to be true casting rumors, it’s been confirmed that Sacha Baron Cohen will play Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in an upcoming biopic that will cover the time period from the band’s formative years up to their appearance at Live Aid in 1985, stopping just short of Mercury’s death in 1991.

GK Films has also cleared the rights to some of Queen’s classic tracks, including ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ and ‘You’re My Best Friend.’ ‘Fat Bottom Girls’ better be in there, too. One obvious question: will Cohen sing, or will he mime to Mercury’s tracks?

We don’t know. That’ll be worked out between the producers, Cohen and whoever gets the job to direct. We do know that the remaining members of Queen (Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon) are behind the film and formed a company to be part of the production team. That’s quite significant. Expect there to be some real attention paid to Mercury’s sexuality, and the fact that he became one of the most famous early victims of AIDS. Mercury’s status as a long-standing rock icon helped change the public perception of AIDS, so you can bet that Morgan will address that in some manner in the script.

Via