Deadline:
Whether it's Marvin Gaye, Janis Joplin, Phil Spector or a host of others, enough announced music pics stall that it’s hard to find one worth worth getting excited about. Try this one: Sacha Baron Cohen has closed a deal to play Queen front man Freddie Mercury in a film that’s being scripted by Peter Morgan for a 2011 production start. The untitled film will be financed by GK Films partners Graham King and Tim Headington, who'll produce in partnership with Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal’s Tribeca Productions, and Queen Films.
Before Bohemian Rhapsody was a film directed by Bryan Singer and starring Mr. Robot lead Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, it was a project with Borat mastermind Sacha Baron Cohen attached to play the legendary Queen frontman.
Tracking Board: And now for his next trick, Sacha Baron Cohen will star in MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN for Warner Bros. Get Hard writer-director Etan Cohen is set to direct the film, which is based on the popular character from the syndicated newspaper comic strip created by Lee Falk in 1934. The most recent drafts of the script come from David Peoples and Janet Peoples and Puss In Boots scribe Tom Wheeler.
From THR:
Never one to tiptoe away from causing offense, British comic Sacha Baron Cohen has this time upset residents of an entire British town, according to local media reports.
I think Sacha Baron Cohen has the potential to do great work, but every time he's in the news, he just comes off as a continuing tabloid gimmick.
