Queen drummer Roger Taylor has apparently shed some more light on Sacha Baron Cohen’s departure from a planned biopic of Freddie Mercury, telling Mojo magazine those behind the film ‘didn’t want it to be a joke’.
Sacha Baron Cohen had been lined up to play the legendary Queen frontman for some time, but was abruptly announced to have left the project in July with ‘creative differences’ being cited.
“We felt Sacha probably wasn’t right,” Taylor is quoted as saying in Mojo Magazine. “We didn’t want it to be a joke. We want people to be moved.”
“I thought the music business was slow, but this has been like swimming in treacle,” Taylor continues on the slow progress being made in getting filming underway. “We need to step back now.”
Early reports suggested the biopic was to be simply entitled Mercury, and would take the story up to Queen’s appearance at London’s Live Aid concert in 1985 – a gig widely seen as reigniting the band’s waning fortunes.
(edit: source has been corrected from SUN to Mojo Magazine)
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