Years ago, while in his wildly popular Borat alter ego, Sacha Baron Cohen pointed out the resemblance between the famous rock star Freddie Mercury and himself, as the Kazakhstani reporter. In fact, during a red carpet interview for his film, Borat noted what a tragedy it was for Freddie Mercury to have died in a car crash. Of course, homosexual-hating Borat seemed to not have known the fact that Mercury, a homosexual himself, had died from complications related to AIDS. Well hopefully Cohen knows that now, because it has been announced that Cohen will be portraying the rock legend Mercury in an upcoming biopic.
Those concerned that Cohen is out to make a joke out of Mercury’s life should be happy to know that Mercury’s bandmates Brian May and Roger Taylor are on board with the film and the filmmakers have already licensed Queen’s music for the film. It’s not known whether or not Cohen will be singing the songs himself, but based on his rather… unique singing ability showcased in Sweeny Todd, I’d imagine we’ll probably see him lip-syncing. But what do we know? Perhaps one of the ways Cohen charmed his beautiful wife Isla Fisher is his here-to-now unknown beautiful singing voice. Either way, with Cohen’s chameleon-like ability to absorb himself into a role, I can’t wait to see this.
Fellow Brit Peter Morgan will be contributing the script to the as-yet-untitled film. Morgan has had a remarkable run of success in the last few years — he’s the writer of The Last King of Scotland, The Queen, The Other Boleyn Girl, Frost/Nixon, and the upcoming Hereafter. If nothing else, these credits should prove to all that Cohen, Morgan, and the surviving members of Queen are taking this project seriously — as they should! Mercury, one of the top rock stars of the 1970s and 1980s, is considered to be one of the all-time greatest frontmen in pop music history. His final years — in which he was constantly dogged by the media about his frail appearance and rumors of his sexuality, culminating with him dying of AIDS only a day after he finally admitted he was suffering from the disease — could make for a remarkable biopic
About the author
Recent Comments