Sascha Baron Cohen Quits Freddie Biopic over creative differences

Sascha had in mind that they were going to be making a sleazy R-rated tell all film about the gay lead singer, but the band had a PG rated film in mind that focused on Queen's rise to the top.

Read the story here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/22/sacha-baron-cohen-freddie-mercury_n_3636657.html

Someone on this site will be very pleased.......!

Whilst the 'Hollywood machine' will want a 'warts n all' film that reveals the behind the scenes, Brian and Roger have to stick to their guns on this one and make the film that they want, with the story they want to tell - after all. it's their legacy, their life etc...

I personally don't see this ever happening, and to me that's no great loss really - if you want the story of Queen, you can do a lot worse than watching the Days of Our Lives documentary.

Sacha's goal/vision was not a "sleazy" rendition, but rather a more forthcoming account of Freddie's life. As Freddie would say, "warts and all". He would die a second death to learn his biopic was being restricted to "careful and BORING" - his nightmare.

I´m glad that Queen are in control!

I feel sad that Sacha has quited because i think he´s the ideal one to do the movie. He´s a natural Freddie look-alike.

Having seen the movie "Philadelphia" with Tom Hanks a couple of weeks ago, just made me think that i don´t want to see the last days of Freddie on film. It doesn´t bring anything new or positive to the table and it would be a very sad ending for a movie about Queen.

If Queen are doing this because they want the movie to focuse more on the music, then i applaud them, because i think that it´s all about that wonderfull music - to show youngsters how it´s donne- and to inspire people with music.

And i´m glad that the boys want this to be more about Queen as a band than only Freddie and his lifestyle.

Really good news, to know that Hollywod would not do what they want to do against Queen wishes.

Very well put, Mr. QueenFan. I totally agree.

[QUOTE] [b]Mr.QueenFan wrote:[/b]Having seen the movie "Philadelphia" with Tom Hanks a couple of weeks ago, just made me think that i don´t want to see the last days of Freddie on film. It doesn´t bring anything new or positive to the table and it would be a very sad ending for a movie about Queen.[/QUOTE] it's a story of his life - that should be ALL of it. people die.

[QUOTE] [b]Mr.QueenFan wrote:[/b]and it would be a very sad ending for a movie about Queen..[/QUOTE]
the movie is NOT about Queen - it's about Freddie, Freddie had 25 years BEFORE queen and a solo career too.
as regards the "sad ending" comment - Brian already took care of that with the musical, cosmos rocks, various weird singer choices....yes, queen had their "sad end" 1998-2013 etc

[QUOTE] [b]Mr.QueenFan wrote:[/b]If Queen are doing this because they want the movie to focuse more on the music, then i applaud them, because i think that it´s all about that wonderfull music - to show youngsters how it´s donne- and to inspire people with music.[/QUOTE] you are being too naive. the "focus on the music" is a cynical approach - more royalty money from record sales, soundtrack, and generally more lucre for the remaining band members - Bri/Rog
personally, i'd like to see a biopic with NO MUSIC...just acting and a focus on the star's life

I recently met the wife somebody closely involved with the project. She told me that Sasha can only play himself and that he is out of the project. I think they found a nice way for him to step back from the project. "He leaves" sounds better than "he must leave" ...

A story about Queen and Freddie MUST tell the whole story. That includes the ending years too no matter how hard it is for some of you to handle. IT is the TRUTH, that was what happend and
why ignore that fact? That is what was so incredibly sad about Freddies story and that NEEDS to be told in the Movie or else the Movie will suck.

I think it is a bit of a shame. I think it needs to push things in order to be any good. How many average "biopics" are there? loads.

But odd, that it has taken this long to realise that their visions of what the movie would be like are so different.

It will be amazing if the movie ever gets made.

Nothing wrong with telling the whole story but in light of his past stupidity he was not deserving of the role it would not do Freddie Mercury justice

acting is acting. doesn't matter what you think of the personality, it's how they portray the role.
we'll never know now for sure, but actors can act (usually) by definition, pity most people
round here deemed him so "unworthy" of the role - esp when (most) of those people
deemed our extremely flawed and self-deprecating genius singer above anyone ever
playing him on film
perhaps the irony of the hypocrisy was lost on them?

I did interviews with Mack, Mike Moran, Peter Straker, Peter Hince,Bill Smith (The Works art work), Morgan Fisher, the drummer session of Mr.Bad Guy, etc, etc...for spanish music magazines. All we know Jim Beach want to show only a side of Freddie. As human being, we all have different sides. With all this people, nobody talks good about Jim Beach. Some preffer not to talk, others of the records told me somethings sucking...that I can't share for respect of them. Brian and Roger lost all their credibility when collaborated with bands like FIVE (A BOY BAND) or Britney or every person in the world under the name of Queen. That doesn't affect their brilliant past and the good songs they did and moments of happines they did as, but their not honest with the Queen legacy. I'm sure Barbara Valentin or Peter Straker would not appear in the film, and if they appear as fictional characters, would be a few minutes.
If you want a good biopic, you must show everything, like Eastwood did with 'Bird', or Hoffman's interpretation of Lenny Bruce. Or if you want a good documentary, you have the last Chet Baker, Let's get lost. If you don't want to share this things, is correct, not do it.
All my respect to Sacha and John Deacon. Is my opinion.

Apocalipsis_Darko:

I would be extremely surprised if Barbara Valentin chooses to "appear" in the movie, if it's ever made, wouldn't you?

It looks like you're well informed and up to date my friend.

Obviously, Barbara Valentin is dead, I mean an actrees for her rol :)
And sorry for my written english!
I only have the good fortune to talk to a lot of people about Queen, cause my job as culture journalist. Being Queen my favorite rock band since I was 6 years old, I always tried to do interviews with people near to them. Or if I did interviews with other artist, like Shirley Manson, Joe Elliot, Sasha Grey (the most beauty fan of Queen on earth, hahaha) or Alan Moore, I asked them about Queen, with freedom to say what they think. For example, there are artist said bad things about them, and I respect all the visions and perspectives.
With Mack I talked to him by phone a few times and by mail. I asked by mail for "The Freddie Mercury Album". His answer was:

"After watching the movie 'Amadeus' w/Tom Hulce with Freddie, he said: that's probably how I end up, they throw me in a ditch. Promise me that you watch over my music. I did promise. But I really couldn't do much since I just had the verbal authorization and nothing in writing. So the management/company let everybody have a go at it. I declined.From experience of making extended versions at the time, I know with Freddie's stuff it is really difficult. They sound easy enough, but everything is always a little different. Hard, if not impossible to edit/change. As you mentioned, to me it was and is sacrilege.
Imagine a remix of 'Imagine' or 'Revolution'. Yoko has done a few bad ones. Releasing demos etc. There is a reason why unfinished works/ideas are not out in the public. They are not finished. No real artist wants his scrapbook reviewed by anybody".

And one of the persons who did this compilation, a very honest person, Jeff Lord-Age told me:

The Freddy Mercury remixes where a collaboration with Jullian Raymond . I actually worked on about a dozen songs during that period . All of them from Freddies european solo releases . One was the sone Time , another , The great Pretender . All of them were deemed a bit to Freddie and not quite Queen enough to be released on the Disney owned Hollywood Records Label which Juian was a staff producer for . I transfered the original tracks from analoge 24 trk 2inch tape to 1/2 inch 48 track Sony digital reel to reel format , The same format Both My brothers use to this day in there mixing process .Chris Lord-Alge is my older brother abd Tom Lord Alge my younger. From there I worked with session players : Denny Fongheiser , Tim Pierce and Jon Pierce as well as Jeff Lorber , and Bennett Salvay to transform the recordings into a more Queen like production

The guitars on My Love is Dangerous , Mr Bad Guy , Time , Lets turn it on , and even The great Pretender , were re recorded by Tim Pierce ( Rick Springfield band ) . I personally recorded each track with Tim , and we spent a lot of time multi layering the gtr parts and stacking up gtr harmonies. I recorded all the gtr , bass and drum parts on Mr Bad Guy, My Love is dangerous , Time and The Great Pretender , keeping just the original orchestra parts. Those songs were recorded in a band format with Denny Fongheiser on Drums , and Jon Pierce on Bass . Extra layers of Gtr and bas fixes were added after the basic band track was recorded.
I redid the vocal compilation from the original tracks and ended up using different lyrics than the original in My Love Is Dangerous , not ever hearing the original or even refering to it . I remember being told that I had changed the lyrics by a executive at Hollywood and my reply was Cool , now its a collectors item. I really just tried to make the songs as amazing sounding as I could and to frame Freddies voice with the best musical tracks possible . I remember shedding a few tears while working on Time thinking how poignant it was .
The politics surrounding the choice of mixes really bothered me at the time , I thought the Brian Malouf versions of Mr Bad Guy , and the Great Pretender were not as good as mine , but Brian worked for Hollywood Records and these things happen . I have never heard the Nile Rodgers version of Time but in each case the hard work had been done in the studio with the musicians and myself and the producer and the tracks pretty much would mix themself. I am sure that any halfway decent engineer would be able to simply put up the tracks and get a very good mix , I spent a lot of time pre mixing the tracks and removing unwanted bits so there was a really good arrangement on the tape . The vocals and background parts , gtrs etcetera all had been premixed down to stereo tracks with exception of the drums which where on 10 tracks.
Living on my own was mostly given a reworking by Jeff Lorber if I am not mistaken ,. We spent a couple of days reworking it , that is something I had done many times with Jeff at his studio and many other studios in LA with many different artists music .
On a personal note I always thought it was very morbid that these songs had been dug up and redone after Freddies death .
I thought I might feel very disrespected had it been my music . At the time I was struggling to become sucessful in hollywood and really could not afford to turn down any project . Oddly this project is the one that I am most often identified with . I worked very hard to bring honor to an already very bright star and some of his lesser known music . I hope I succeeded.
I gave this two excerpts (the rest are audios, and I can translate english to spanish, but is difficult the inverse, to show Im not inventing anything I said.
I think the only person I don't like to do an interview about Queen, was Mick Rock, very arrogant. Mack, or Mike Moran give me very good vibrations.