Queen Biopic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ ‘Is Finally Happening,’ Band Confirms
The Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody “is finally happening,” the band announced Friday on their website.
“The film is now ‘as-close-as-that’ to start of shooting,” the band wrote. “Pre-production begins next week in the UK to prepare for start of principal photography in around London as soon as mid-September.”
Queen‘s Brian May and Roger Taylor will serve as executive producers on the film that focuses on the life of Freddie Mercury, with Mr. Robot star Rami Malek set to portray the iconic singer.
“He’s completely living and breathing Freddie already, which is just wonderful to see,” May recently told Rolling Stone of Malek.
Queen also reconfirmed that director Bryan Singer would helm Bohemian Rhapsody.
“If you’ve ever seen Singer’s X-Men films, or the groundbreaking movie The Usual Suspects, you’ll know this is a director with extraordinary imagination and style,” the band wrote. “A perfect choice to recreate the fabulous Queen years which brought us such unforgettable moments as Live Aid, which we can reveal will be faithfully recreated for a key sequence the film.”
The Queen site also promised to reveal what actors will portray May, Taylor and former bassist John Deacon in the coming months, and even hinted that Queen fans might be called upon to serve as extras in the film.
May spoke to Rolling Stone and said that the long-gestating Queen biopic was on the verge of getting the green light.
“We’ve been 12 years on this trail, but I think we’re very close now to an announcement, which will signify that Fox has given the green light to actually supply the money. So yes, I think we’re very close,” May said.
At one point in the film’s development, Sacha Baron Cohen was cast to portray Mercury in the biopic, but he dropped out over disagreements with Mercury’s band mates over how the film would cover the more salacious details of the Queen singer’s life.
Following Cohen’s exit, the biopic was revived soon after with actor Ben Winshaw in the Mercury role and director Dexter Fletcher, but that project also fell apart due to creative differences in 2014.
In November 2016, Malik and Singer signed on for the biopic, which featured a new screenplay that May called a “really, really great script.”