Sacha Baron Cohen quits role as Freddie Mercury
A dispute over “creative differences” with the remaining members of Queen, has prompted Sacha Baron Cohen to quit the leading role of Freddie Mercury in the highly anticipated biopic.
With Cohen’s staggeringly similar physical characteristics to the late Freddie Mercury, he was the front-runner for the role of the iconic singer.
Now, after the film has been three years in making, Cohen has walked out because “the band wanted to make more of a PG movie about Queen while Cohen was counting on a gritty R-rated tell-all centered around the gifted gay singer,” wrote Deadline’s Nikki Finke.
Cohen had previously expressed excitement over playing the part of Mercury. He even brought in writer Peter Morgan and directors David Fincher and Hooper. However, the band did not see eye-to-eye with Cohen.
Despite Cohen’s surprising departure, the film’s production will continue with an unnamed actor to replace Cohen and producers Graham King and Tim Headington who will work alongside Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Queen Films.
