Sacha Baron Cohen Want Tom Hooper To Direct Freddy Mercury Biopic

It’s nearly 3 years since Sacha Baron Cohen signed on to play Queen’s iconic front man Freddie Mercury in a biopic of his life, an project that’s been in development until now. Last year director Stephen Frears (High Fidelity) was the original frontrunner to direct but now Deadline say they know who the director is going to be…Tom Hooper.

The untitled biopic is to follow Queen in their early days leading upto the infamous 1985 Live Aid concert at Wembly Stadium, London with Sony Pictures and GK Films who will release the film when it finally  (or if) it gets released. The report is saying the Les Miserables director is circling the project but no formal offer has been made, any talk about the project between the parties has just been ‘chat’. As for the great songs Queen sung over the decades which are relevant for the film’s era GK Films bought the rights  Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen, We Will Rock You, even Highlander score, Under Pressure (with David Bowie) do look like they will be in this film. The question is there will be a high price for Hooper coming onboard and Baron Cohen wanting to play Freddy Mercury, he will probably want Sacha to sing all the songs. The pair worked together at Les Mis you just get that Russell Crowe feeling here, painful. Will Hooper try to take in 10 things at once which this film will have plenty of musical opportunities like Les? Disorganised chaos?!

It is actually now a little unclear if the biopic is Queen overall or focusing just on Freddy Mercury but whtever route or director who will take the helm the remaining of Queen do give the film their blessing. They actually the film that much they will be on board as producers under the Queen Films banner. Could this finally be a role that gives Sacha Baron Cohen the credibility he wants in film, with Frost/Nixon writer Peter Morgan onboard a film project that looks like Cohen  playing a serious role we could have possible Oscar talk ? If Hooper is onboard we would like him to go back to the style as seen in The Kings Speech rather than Les Miserables. With Freddy Mercury‘s eccentric but also private lifestyle we do expect some humour, but before we dream or talk of Oscars let’s see if this project will actually happen first.

source:Deadline