Sacha Baron Cohen to play Freddie Mercury in Queen Biopic

The actors didn't do any of the singing in That Thing You Do! They did learn to play the instruments so it looked realistic on screen, but they didn't record any of the music tracks either.

I really like the choice of Cohen as Freddie - he rarely does appearances out of character, but in the few he has, you can tell there's a serious, intelligent individual behind all the foolishness.

 

This has been in talks for a while, and in all honesty I don't know what to expect. He sort of looks like him, I guess. Can he portray the legendary Murcery? Only time will tell, I'll definitely watch this movie since I'm a huge fan of Freddy, but I won't be going there with high expectations.

 

It would be cool if this were a comedy. I hope Cohen makes it as wondrously flamboyant as possible.

 

I've heard Brian May interviewed enough that Mercury lived an insane life and I remember him saying that as soon as AIDS surfaced that the entire band knew it was just a matter of time until Mercury got it, because he partied so hard.

 

I'll give Cohen the benefit of the doubt. Back in 1980 who ever would have thought that Robin Williams would turn in some of the great serious roles of the last 20-plus years?

 

Sacha Baron Cohen's cousin is maybe the world's leading authority on autism. The psychiatry journals my wife gets often have articles by him in them. Sacha himself went to Cambridge, where he wrote a thesis on the Jewish influence of the American Civil Rights Movement.

 

He sang okay in Sweeney Todd, fwiw, although his role didn't call for much of it.

 

Jimmy Carrey, Adam Sandler and Eddie Murphy have also been written off as "screwball" comics who have considerable dramatic acting chops when the role calls for it.

 

Anybody who can come up and pull off what it takes to do Bruno, Ali G and Borat has to be nothing less of a genius.

 

Jamie Foxx is a classically trained pianist and did all of the piano playing in the movie.

I would feel more comfortable knowing that they were going to dub in Freddie's vocals into the movie and Cohen wouldn't be doing any of the actual singing.

 

Will Saddam be traveling to redneck bars in Arkansas to sing "Throw the Jew down the well"

 

I'll bet Cohen gets an Oscar nomination for at least one of the two roles.