‘Mr. Robot’ Star Rami Malek Will Play Freddie Mercury In The Upcoming Biopic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
The role was originally meant to be played by Sacha Baron Cohen.
Mr. Robot star Rami Malek is slated to play Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in a long gestating biopic titled Bohemian Rhapsody. The film will be helmed by X-Men: Apocalypse director Bryan Singer, who confirmed his involvement, along with Malek’s, via an Instagram post on Saturday.
The film has been stuck in development hell for years, and has seen various directors and leading men come and go. At one point Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen was meant to play Mercury, only to leave the project in 2013 due to “creative differences” with the surviving members of the band. Deadline reported at the time that “the band wanted to make more of a PG movie about Queen while Cohen was counting on a gritty R-rated tell-all centered around the gifted gay singer.”
Although Malek doesn’t bear the same uncanny resemblance to Mercury that Cohen does, his Emmy and Critics’ Choice Awards suggest that he’s up to the challenge of bringing the larger-than-life singer to the screen. According to Deadline, Bohemian Rhapsody will likely start shooting early next year.