--- title: Sacha Baron Cohen Won't Star in Freddie Mercury Biopic description: It was apparently "a small joke." canonical: https://time.com/3762548/sasha-baron-cohen-freddie-mercury-biopic/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-28T21:12:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-15T04:58:53.000Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Sacha Baron Cohen Won't Star in Freddie Mercury Biopic og:description: It was apparently "a small joke." og:url: https://time.com/3762548/sasha-baron-cohen-freddie-mercury-biopic/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1259aa51c43c09a8/698785b0a988cadffe6ad216/464269710-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Sacha Baron Cohen attends 2015 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Feb. 22, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sacha Baron Cohen Won't Star in Freddie Mercury Biopic twitter:description: It was apparently "a small joke." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1259aa51c43c09a8/698785b0a988cadffe6ad216/464269710-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sacha Baron Cohen Won't Star in Freddie Mercury Biopic > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: The 10 Greatest Movies of the Millennium (Thus Far) [Watch (HLS stream): The 10 Greatest Movies of the Millennium (Thus Far)](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/S3M25t5U.m3u8) (4:16)  _Published 2012-05-17. TIME movie critic, Richard Corliss lists his top films of the millennium (Thus Far). For the full, list go to time.com/entertainment_ by [Madison Vain / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Madison Vain / Entertainment Weekly Updated: Dec 15, 2023 4:58 AM UTCPublished: Mar 28, 2015 9:12 PM UTC  Sacha Baron Cohen attends 2015 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Feb. 22, 2015. Sacha Baron Cohen attends 2015 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Feb. 22, 2015.Venturelli—Getty Images by [Madison Vain / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Madison Vain / Entertainment Weekly Updated: Dec 15, 2023 4:58 AM UTCPublished: Mar 28, 2015 9:12 PM UTC UPDATE: It appears we might have gotten excited over nothing—Queen guitarist Brian May posted on [his website](http://brianmay.com/whatsnew.html) that the band’s manager Jim Beach was just throwing in “a small joke” when he claimed that Sacha Baron Cohen had officially signed on to the long-delayed project. Cohen’s rep has not returned our request for comment. The initial report is below. A biopic starring Sacha Baron Cohen as [Freddie Mercury](http://www.ew.com/article/1999/11/19/freddie-mercury-final-rhapsody), the dynamic Queen frontman who died in 1991 at the age of 45 due to complications from AIDS, has been in the works for nearly seven years. It was confirmed as happening as early as 2010 and confirmed as _not_ happening as recently as [2013](http://www.ew.com/article/2013/07/22/casting-net-cohen-magnussen)—reportedly [due to](http://deadline.com/2013/07/sacha-baron-cohen-exits-freddie-mercury-biopic-546717/) Cohen “not seeing eye to eye with the remaining members of Queen who have script and director approval.” Apparently the band was interested in a PG-version of the rock star’s life, while Cohen had hopes for a “gritty R-rated tell-all.” During the project’s long gestational period, Cohen brought in the likes of Peter Morgan to write and David Fincher and Tom Hooper to direct the film, but all were rejected by the band. These differences appear to have been worked out, however, with Queen manager Jim Beach announcing that Cohen will depict the singer, as well as write, direct, and produce the film himself. At the Artist and Manager Awards held on March 26, Beach used his acceptance speech—for the Peter Grant award for outstanding acheivement—to make the announcement. “You have probably followed the saga of the famous Queen-Freddie Mercury biopic which has been developing in Hollywood for the last seven years. An important breakthrough is that we have now managed to persuade Sacha Baron Cohen to write, produce, and direct this movie, and he has also agreed to star.” When the film will get underway was not discussed. Cohen’s camp has yet to confirm his involvement. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/03/28/sacha-baron-cohen-freddy-mercury-biopic-confirmed) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3762548/sasha-baron-cohen-freddie-mercury-biopic/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3762548/sasha-baron-cohen-freddie-mercury-biopic/"},"headline":"Sacha Baron Cohen Won't Star in Freddie Mercury Biopic","datePublished":"2015-03-28T21:12:53.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-15T04:58:53.000Z","description":"It was apparently \"a small joke\"","url":"https://time.com/3762548/sasha-baron-cohen-freddie-mercury-biopic/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1259aa51c43c09a8/698785b0a988cadffe6ad216/464269710-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Madison Vain / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1259aa51c43c09a8/698785b0a988cadffe6ad216/464269710-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sacha Baron Cohen attends 2015 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Feb. 22, 2015.","caption":"Sacha Baron Cohen attends 2015 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Feb. 22, 2015.","creditText":"Venturelli—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3762548/sasha-baron-cohen-freddie-mercury-biopic/","name":"Sacha Baron Cohen Won't Star in Freddie Mercury Biopic"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The 10 Greatest Movies of the Millennium (Thus Far)","description":"TIME movie critic, Richard Corliss lists his top films of the millennium (Thus Far). 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