Last week, Queen's manager, Jim Beach, stirred some fan commotion after revealing that Sacha Baron Cohen will be involved with the Freddie Mercury biopic once again during his acceptance speech at the Peter Grant Award.
"You have probably followed the saga of the famous Queen-Freddie Mercury biopic which has been developing in Hollywood for the last seven years," Beach reportedly said as he accepted his award for outstanding achievement last March 26. "An important breakthrough is that we have now managed to persuade Sacha Baron Cohen to write, produce, and direct this movie, and he has also agreed to star."
Following Beach's announcement a couple of weeks ago, Queen's guitarist Brian May denied Sacha Baron Cohen's return to the Freddie Mercury biopic project.
According to Time Magazine, the 67-year-old astrophysicist and musician denied his manager's previous comment through his website. Apparently, Beach was just throwing out "a small joke."
"I'm afraid some folks might have taken it seriously!" May wrote on Saturday.
Cohen's side has not issued a response to the "small joke."
Cohen had been involved with the long-standing film project but reportedly left due to some "creative differences" between the two surviving members of the legendary band, May and drummer Roger Taylor, in 2013.
Taylor previously said that the "Borat" star "probably wasn't right in the end" and that he didn't want the film to be a joke and having Cohen in the film would be "distracting."
"We want people to be moved," he continued.
The band reportedly wanted a PG-version of the retelling Freddie Mercury's life. On the other hand, Cohen was more interested in a rated tell-all.
The movie adaptation, which had been in the works since 2010, will be focusing on the life of Queen's lead singer Freddie Mercury. The iconic singer died in 1991 due to complications with AIDS.
