Freddie Movie

Micrówave, I'm afraid you're out of your element or area of expertise here.  I'll try to explain.  

Ray won an Oscar (two Oscars, actually, and many other awards). The reason it might not have gotten major-mongo worldwide grosses is, frankly, the African-Amerian lead. That's not me talking; that's just the way the business is. Nonetheless, it made 75 million dollars worldwide and is the second highest grossing music biopic (http://boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=musicbio.htm).

But the real reason one puts together this kind of movie isn't to make Transformers-type grosses.  It's to make money, yes, but also to do a good film and also to be Oscar- and other awards-bait. Look at the other top-grossing music bio-pics and you might see what I mean. These types of movies build careers and also re-direct some. It did so for Jamie Foxx, that's for sure. and there are other examples. It's also, I suspect, a movie that would do well later on cable and streaming and DVD.  All that is taken into account these days.  

Whether Queen were less or more influential than Led Zeppelin, or if Ray Charles is considered a better singer than Freddie by the world at large has nothing to do with whether it would make for a good movie, and it's sort of a red herring. If you look at the top music biopics list, you'll see Richie Valens, Frankie Lymon, and Bobby Darin, and Devid Helfgott as music biopic subjects as well.  Like them, Freddie has a compelling story, and that's what the movie, I think and hope, will center on.

Micrówave wrote: C'mon, GratefulFan....   I love him too but no matter how great he was, Freddie will never be the cultural icon we so want him to be.  Sure WE compare him to Elvis or The Beatles, but there really is no comparison.   The greatest singer in the world (possibly FM) will never reach the status of Ray Charles, or the aforementioned Elvis.

And RAY didn't do that well, so why would an obscure movie about Freddie do any better?  In fact, I can't think of ANY music-oriented biography movie that did that well.  Even though there will be people on here that will tell you Fred had more impact on the music industry than anybody, it just simply isn't true.  They put out twice as much music as Led Zeppelin, but plenty will tell you that LZ had more influence on Rock & Roll than Queen.

The only way this movie could happen is if they turned it into a comedy.
Ooh, that's slightly over-pessimistic I think. I always try to keep some distance to Queen, sometimes even teasing the more zealous fans, but I do think that Freddie became an icon over the last years and I think Queen is right there with the greats like the Beatles, Pink Floyd or the Stones. Their music proved very universal and enduring over the years. Also, I always thought that the film Ray did very well indeed. In fact, it was after the success of Ray and Walk the Line that the idea of Freddie biopic came up, as far as I remember. So, let's have some faith and hope there will be an update eventually.

Micrówave wrote: Why?

Because NO ONE (except those here on Queenzone) will be remotely interested in this.  And anybody that is still interested is wanting the later years covered. 

I'm surprised that Di Niro's people couldn't see this before committing to it.

That said, there's still a market for the Direct To Video release.  But that just means it will be Sacha Baren Cohen and a bunch of no-names, so the acting level will be severely crippled as well.
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Hey, the same was probably said about The Damned United (screenplay written by Peter Morgan).  Who would have thought that you could make a successful film about Brian Clough?  But they did and Fred is a lot more popular than Clough. 
Your point that it will be Sacha Baren [sic] Cohen and a bunch of no-names is totally unsubstantiated.

De Niro not Di Niro

The title ''A Kind of Magic'' would have little to do with the album. It will be describing Mercury, so it can be used eventhough it sets before the release of this album. (I wouldn't but the people invested in this might not care so much about timeline)

Sacha Baron Cohen is the driving force behind this movie, It will be mostly up to him to get this project realized. He is currently filming 'The Dictator'.
When a script for 'AKOM' is approved (i think somewhere early next year) preproduction and filming can begin.
We will be looking at a winter 2012 release, or even summer 2013.

Micrówave wrote: C'mon, GratefulFan....   I love him too but no matter how great he was, Freddie will never be the cultural icon we so want him to be.  Sure WE compare him to Elvis or The Beatles, but there really is no comparison.   The greatest singer in the world (possibly FM) will never reach the status of Ray Charles, or the aforementioned Elvis

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I'm genuinely not sure about that.  I agree that our particular level of fandom risks skewing our perception, but which way?  I posted a link to a Canadian decorative wall art company the other day that had a pop culture section that wasn't particularly large, but it had a Freddie. Infinitesimally small sample, I know, but I think there is more of a broad instant recognition and instant affective factor than some of us might credit.

The Freddie Mercury Google Doodle is proof that Freddie is popular enough for a movie to be made about him and Queen.

Freddie is not on the same level as Elvis or the Beatles (although in terms of talent, he absolutely is), however that is irrelevant when one considers the musicians who have been the subjects of biopics. There have been Sid Vicious, Jim Morrison, Ray Charles, & Johnny Cash among the most prominent biopics. There hasn't really been a biopic about Elvis. There has never been a biopic about the Stones, apart from several documentaries. The Beatles haven't featured in any major biopic, although John Lennon has been the subject of a couple (and there was also Backbeat about the early days in Germany).

Ultimately, whether the Mercury film does well will come down to the quality. I'm personally relatively confident. I think that SBC can do a fine job (although I hope he mimes rather than sings), the screenplay should be of a high quality, and Queen's music is such that no matter what songs they utilize, they can't really go wrong (unless they utilize something like Fun It or In the Lap of the Gods). Commercially as well, even those most unfamiliar with Freddie will be familiar with at least some of his music, and will probably like some of it as well ('I hate Queen however I love Killer Queen' for example). Plus he was such an amazing live performer, that including Queen footage (perhaps at the end) might not be such a bad thing. I'm hopeful about this film, and in fact I'm really looking forward to it. For some reason, Freddie doesn't seem to get the respect he deserved, especially in the US. Hopefully the film will go some way towards changing that.

Speaking as a fairly new fan of Queen's music, I'm excited by the prospect of the upcoming biopic. Part of this is due to Peter Morgan being the scriptwriter -- I've only seen of his works The Queen, The Last King of Scotland, and Frost/Nixon, but they were all excellent films, with deeply flawed but sympathetic protagonists. Early 80s Freddie seems to fit this narrative niche very well. I'm excited by the idea of a character study which also looks at his friendships with the other band members, rather than just another film about rock 'n roll excesses alone. SBC as Freddie is a surprise, but I can't dispute that he can make the roles he plays come alive. I'm not worried that there's no news about the film yet.

I do wonder about how broad the film's appeal will be. For some reason I can imagine it doing well at the box office, especially if critically acclaimed, but far from making top dollar.

[QUOTE]Daniel Nester wrote: Micrówave, I'm afraid you're out of your element or area of expertise here.  I'll try to explain.  

Ray won an Oscar (two Oscars, actually, and many other awards). The reason it might not have gotten major-mongo worldwide grosses is, frankly, the African-Amerian lead. That's not me talking; that's just the way the business is. [/QUOTE]

UPDATE:

Ray Charles was black.

To Ray Charles, everything was black.  He was a blind guy wearing sunglasses - it don't come any darker than that.

Still...  I guess they could have given that role to Lou Diamond Phillips instead.

I don't like the idea of anyone playing Freddie, especially not SBC.  No one can embody or capture the essence of Freddie Mercury and if they try it would never live up to the fans expectations.  I think the whole idea is a bad one, they should just scrap it.  It would just make a mockery of his legacy and do no justice to the living members either.  Robert DeNiro should know better, but than again his work be it acting or directing has really declined in his later years, he should just give it up already and leave well enough alone.

I prefer the idea of a sci-fi film over a biopic in this case. No one can replace Freddie, and some new people will think in Freddie with the face o SBC or whatever...
A dystopian We Will Rock You world could be better. A good film with Queen soundtrack, imagine a film version of a fight between Killer Queen and Galileo in the ruins of Wembley!

Now you have some imagination, I really like it, that would be something that I believe the members of Queen as well as the fans would like!

SciFi movie! Give me a fucking break.