How has charismatic Queen frontman Freddie Mercury not been the subject of an epic biopic yet? Well, we’re not going to have to wait too much longer now, since Anthony McCarten was recently brought on board by Sony to write the film’s script.
The film is still in embryonic stages, but the MacCarten is a strong move: He previously wrote the script for the Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything, which was a phenomenally moving and adept portrayal of the astrophysicist’s life, so this project seems to be off to a good start.
This movie has gone back and forth between stop and go for the past couple years, with the most disappointing blow being Sasha Baron Cohen deciding he didn’t want to play Mercury anymore. That’s a huge shame, considering his acting chops and unreal physical similarity to the singer, but he dropped out of the project because he wanted a raw look at Mercury’s life, as opposed to the PG-rated direction the script seemed to be heading in at the time.
The good news is that Ben Whishaw–from Cloud Atlas and Spectre–is now on board to portray Mercury. That should be a decent replacement, as Whishaw has shined thus far in his young career, and he doesn’t look terribly unlike Mercury. He should be capable of an impressive performance, so here’s to him bringing it when shooting starts in June 2016.
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Featured image courtesy of deviantArt // BonaScottina
