The saga surrounding the embattled Freddie Mercury biopic is continuing to unfold, after Queen guitarist Brian May returned fire at ousted leading man Sacha Baron Cohen.
Cohen, aka Borat, recently went public about why he wanted to break free from the project, explaining that the surviving Queen members didn’t agree with his gritty, R-rated take on Mercury’s story, instead wanting a more wholesome, family-friendly tale that focused on how the band bravely persevered after his death.
So, basically, Cohen wanted The Dark Knight and Queen wanted Batman & Robin (which is kind of hard to imagine in relation to a tale about the greatest singer of all time dying tragically of AIDS, but go figure).
But anyway, flash (ahhh ahhh!) forward to now, and May has come out to sling some mud on Cohen’s face, saying that he “became such an arse” during the conceptual process.
“We had some nice times with Sacha kicking around ideas but he went off and told untruths about what happened,” the guitarist told The Daily Mail, taking particular issue with Cohen’s claim that Queen wanted to turn the story of Mercury’s life into a PG-rated family film.
“Why would he go away and say that we didn’t want to make a gritty film?” he said. “Are we the kind of people who have ever ducked from the truth? I don’t think so…
“We decided he wasn’t right for the role for very good reasons, which will become apparent if you watch what he’s done recently.”
May said the band were moving forward with actor Ben Whishaw now holding the baseless three-quarter mic stand, describing him as “fabulous, a real actor”.
And despite the flick also recently losing its director, the show – as Freddie always said – must go on.
Watch: Queen – The Show Must Go On
