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Gay News: Sacha Baron Cohen, whose last film role was camp fashionista Bruno, is to take the role of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury
By: Nigel Robinson
Cohen as Bruno, and Mercury
Cohen as Bruno, and Mercury
Brüno star to play Freddie in film
17 September 2010
Brian May, the former Queen guitarist, confirmed the news of the forthcoming biopic to the BBC.
He told the HARDtalk programme that Cohen had been discussing the role with the members of the group for a long time.
Sacha Baron Cohen is best known as a comedian, famous for his fictional creations, Ali G, Borat and Brüno.
Peter Morgan, who wrote the Oscar-nominated films The Queen and Frost/ Nixon, will be working on the screenplay, which will focus on the band’s appearance at the Live Aid concert in 1985, which many consider to be their best ever performance.
It seems likely that the film will also investigate Mercury’s legendary hedonistic lifestyle, his sexual ambiguity, and his secret fight with AIDS.
The movie will begin shooting in 2011, and has the full support of Mercury’s estate and the three remaining band members, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon.
Freddie Mercury died from an AIDS-related illness in 1991 at the age of forty-five.
