Why Sacha Baron Cohen walked from Freddie Mercury biopic

More information has emerged about why Sacha Baron Cohen quit the forthcoming biopic of Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury. The ‘Borat’ and ‘Les Mis’ star clashed with both the filmmakers and the band over the tone of the planned movie, and its proposed certificate.

Baron Cohen's publicist has revealed that "creative differences"  came between the British actor and the role of a lifetime.

[Sacha Baron Cohen walks from Freddie Mercury biopic]

Baron Cohen wanted to focus on the hell-raising years leading up to the Live Aid concert of 1985.  That would mean delving into a period when, according to his manager, James Beach, Mercury revelled in New York's gay scene "without consequences".

It was a time of wild debauched parties, - one attendee described Mercury's 39th birthday  in 1985 as "like the last days of Berlin".

However, it seems that the film’s producers (who include Robert De Niro) – and the band, who have final say on both the script and the director – have something less confrontational in mind.

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Sony is thought to have been courting the British director, Tom Hooper, who worked with Baron Cohen on ‘Les Mis’. But insiders say the surviving members of Queen - who also include Brian May and John Deacon - blocked Hooper, and that they also vetoed 'Social Network' director, David Fincher.

In the 'Times' newspaper a Hollywood executive with knowledge of the Mercury film suggests that his friends were unsettled by the prospect of his behaviour in the 1970s and early 80s being judged through the lens of what is now known about HIV. "He acted out at a time when Aids was not an issue, " he said. "And when Freddie died, his circle promised to protect him."