First footage goes online of long-in-development film about big-selling British rockers, starring Mr Robot’s
Rami MalekThe first full trailer of the long-gestating
Queen and
Freddie Mercury biopic,
Bohemian Rhapsody, has been released onto the internet. Starring Mr Robot’s Rami Malek as Mercury, the band’s exuberant lead singer who died in 1991, anticipation had been stoked on Monday with a short teaser on Queen’s official Youtube channel.
The film has been in the works since at least 2010, when it was announced that Sacha Baron Cohen was to play Mercury; however, Baron Cohen left the project in 2013 citing “creative differences” with Mercury’s former bandmates, with guitarist Brian May later calling Baron Cohen “an arse”.
The project later ran into further difficulties when its director, Bryan Singer, was fired after reportedly taking too much time off for “health concerns”. Eddie the Eagle director Dexter Fletcher was drafted in to replace him midway through production.
The official synopsis describes the film as follows:
Bohemian Rhapsody is a foot-stomping celebration of Queen, their music and their extraordinary lead singer Freddie Mercury, who defied stereotypes and shattered convention to become one of the most beloved entertainers on the planet. The film traces the meteoric rise of the band through their iconic songs and revolutionary sound, their near-implosion as Mercury’s lifestyle spirals out of control, and their triumphant reunion on the eve of Live Aid, where Mercury, facing a life-threatening illness, leads the band in one of the greatest performances in the history of rock music.”
Bohemian Rhapsody is due for release on 24 October in the UK, 1 November in Australia and 2 November in the US.