In a recent interview with radio-God Howard Stern the famous actor Sascha Baron Cohen revealed the reason why he walked out of Freddy Mercury’s biopic, where he’d have the leading role, a couple of years ago. According to Cohen the problems started from the minute he signed his contract at his first meeting with the band. One member of Queen, he wouldn’t say who, told him: “You know, this is such a great movie because it’s got such an amazing thing that happens in the middle of the movie.”That “amazing thing,” apparently, was Mercury’s death, so the actor if the idea was to have the story out of sequence, but he got the reply that the movie would show how the band carried on… Cohen objected saying that nobody would like to to see a movie where the lead character dies and then you see the band carry on. However, Cohen told Stern that he understand why the band decided that: “If you’re in control of your rights and your life story, why wouldn’t you depict yourself as great as possible?” According to the actor he was also responsible to come up with the movie’s script for which he asked Peter Morgan’s help (English screen writer who specializes in biopic movies, known for The Queen, Frost/Nixon, The Damned United, Rush), but they didn’t like it. They also rejected David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button), another choice by Cohen, as a possible director, because “perhaps they had something specific in their minds”, commented the actor. So, the collaboration was terminated due to artistic differences after six years. However, Cohen’s opinion about Brian May (was it him who doesn’t want to name?) doesn’t change: “The remaining members are still great musicians. Brian May is an amazing musician; he wrote half their stuff. But he’s not a great movie producer”.
