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Bohemian Rhapsody , the biopic of Queen centring on the band’s flamboyant frontman Freddie Mercury , is in contention to win Best Picture at the Oscars this weekend.
However, the film took a decade to arrive on the big screen after experiencing one of the most turbulent production histories in recent memory.
It lost its provisional lead at a crucial stage over disagreements with surviving band members and then suffered a last-minute directorial disaster.
Initial talks over the possibility of a Queen biopic first began in 2008, when guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor met with screenwriter Peter Morgan , a specialist in real-life subject matter having scripted The Queen , Frost/Nixon (both 2006), The Damned United (2009) and Rush (2013).
Queen continued to tour in the wake of Freddie’s death from AIDS in 1991, with Paul Rodgers and then Adam Lambert taking over vocals, and were the subject of the West End musical We Will Rock You, written by Ben Elton, which ran for 12 years at London’s Dominion Theatre between 2002 and 2014.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Show all 90 1 /90Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Scroll through for every single Best Picture winner there has ever been
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Wings (1928) The realistic air-combat sequences – a benchmark for all future aviation scenes – set this film apart from the competition at the very first Academy Awards ceremony (the category was then named Best Picture Production).
Paramount/Rex
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Broadway Melody (1929) This was the first "talkie" to win the main prize. It follows a pair of sisters from the vaudeville circuit who try to make it big on Broadway.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) One of the most harrowing accounts of WWI, All Quiet on the Western Front was the first Best Picture winner to win Best Director too (Lewis Milestone accepted the trophy).
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Cimarron (1931) Westerns don't usually win the main prize at the Oscars, but Cimarron proves a rare exception.
RKO Radio Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Grand Hotel (1932) Grand Hotel , starring Joan Crawford and John Barrymore, is the only Best Picture winner that received no nominations in any other category.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Cavalcade (1933) This film presents a view of English life during the first quarter of the 20th century from New Year's Eve 1899 to New Year's Day 1933, from the point of view of well-to-do London residents Jane and Robert Marryot (Diana Wynward and Clive Brook).
Fox Film Corporation
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards It Happened One Night (1934) The first of three films to win in all the five main categories (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay) alongside One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Silence of the Lambs .
Columbia Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) Another win for Cavalcade director Frank Lloyd that inspired the creation of the Best Supporting Actor category after three of its lead stars – Clark Gable, Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone – were nominated for Best Actor. Interestingly, they were all beaten by Victor McLaglen for The Informer .
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Great Ziegfeld (1936) This lavish and extremely lengthy MGM production remains a standard in musical filmmaking, even if critics have fallen out of love with it over the years.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Life of Emile Zola (1937) Paul Muni failed to win the Best Actor trophy for his portrayal of French playwright Émile Zola, but the film took home Best Picture beating out the likes of The Awful Truth and A Star Is Born .
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards You Can't Take It with You (1938) It Happened One Night filmmaker Frank Capra's third Best Director win came with his second victory in the Best Picture category.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Gone with the Wind (1939) One of the most successful films of all time, Gone with the Wind swept the board at the Oscars, winning 10 out of 13 nominations.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Rebecca (1940) Alfred Hitchcock's first American film, an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's gothic drama, won Best Picture, but failed to win any awards in any of the acting, writing or director category – one of the only instances in Oscar history.
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards How Green Was My Valley (1941) Otherwise known as: the film that beat Citizen Kane . It's also said to be future Oscar-winner Clint Eastwood's favourite film.
20th Century Fox
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Mrs Miniver (1942) This drama, depicting the life of an unassuming British housewife (Greer Garson) in rural England during World War II, won six Oscars in total.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Casablanca (1943) After almost missing out on a nomination due to a technicality, Casablanca went on to win three Oscars, including Best Director for Michael Curtiz.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Going My Way (1944) Leo McCarey's collaboration with Bing Crosby wasn't just the biggest hit at the 1944 box office, but a ten-time Oscar nominee that marked a first: a Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor nomination - for the same actor (Barry Fitzgerald).
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Lost Weekend (1945) This drama, following Ray Milland's alcoholic writer, was the talk of the 1946 ceremony, winning four trophies in total.
Paramount Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) This war drama was the talk of Hollywood after winning nine Oscars, including two for veteran and non-professional actor Harold Russell, who remains the only person to have won two awards (Best Supporting Actor and an honorary trophy) for the same role.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Gentlemen’s Agreement (1947) Controversial in its time, Gentlemen's Agreement follows a journalist (Gregory Peck) who poses as a Jew to research an exposé on the widespread distrust and dislike of Jews in New York City. It won three of the five Oscars it was nominated for.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Hamlet (1948) Hamlet stands tall as one of the most successful Shakespearean adaptations at the Oscars, as well as the first British film to win Best Picture.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards All the King’s Men (1949) This adaptation of the Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name starred Broderick Crawford as the ambitious and occasionally ruthless politician, Willie Stark.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards All About Eve (1950) This Best Picture winner won six Oscars, but left lead stars Bette Davis and Anne Baxter – both nominated for Best Actress – empty-handed.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards An American in Paris (1951) Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron lead this musical version of George Gershwin's orchestral composition that won six Oscars in all.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) Many consider this film to be one of the worst Best Picture winners in Oscar history, and was the last victor to win fewer than three trophies until Spotlight in 2016. Many believe it beat its competitors as it was a chance to honour Cecil B DeMille whose films had failed the main prize.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards From Here to Eternity (1953) Fred Zinneman's romantic drama took home an impressive eight out of 13 nominations, including a Best Supporting Actor win for Frank Sinatra.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards On the Waterfront (1954) Marlon Brando won his first Oscar in this Best Picture winner from Elia Kazan.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Marty (1955) Marty – starring Best Actor victor Ernest Borgnine – was also the fourth American release to win the coveted Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Around the World in 80 Days (1956) The adaptation of Jules Verne's classic novel won five Oscars, beat out a particularly tough category that included epics The Ten Commandments , Giant and The King and I .
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) The 30th Oscars ceremony awarded David Lean's epic war film that saw Alec Guinness take home Best Actor.
Columbia Pictures/AP
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Gigi (1958) Leslie Caron fronted classic MGM musical Gigi , which won nine Oscars – a record for just one year.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Ben-Hur (1959) Ben-Hur is the first of only three films to win 11 Academy Awards (see also: Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ). It was nominated 12 times, losing only to Room at the Top in the Best Adapted Screenplay category.
TCM
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Apartment (1960) One of the last black-and-white Oscar winners as Hollywood moved towards colour in films a matter of years after The Apartment 's release. The most recent black-and-white films to win Best Picture are Schindler's List and The Artist .
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards West Side Story (1961) This film, from directors Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, holds the record for most wins for a musical (10 out of 11 nominations).
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Lawrence of Arabia (1962) David Lean's next film following The Bridge on the River Kwai earned him yet another Best Picture and Best Director Oscar win.
Getty
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Tom Jones (1963) None of the producers of adventure-comedy film Tom Jones showed up to accept the trophy, which is now in possession of Albert Finney.
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards My Fair Lady (1964) Eight-time Oscar winning My Fair Lady is considered one of the greatest musicals to this day.
Warner Bros Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Sound of Music (1965) It's hard to believe that Julie Andrews didn't win for her lead role in The Sound of Music , but it did take home the Best Picture trophy in 1965.
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards A Man for All Seasons (1966) Oscar favourite Fred Zinneman (From Here to Eternity ) was the talk of the town after his film about the final year of Sir Thomas More walked away with six awards.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Oliver! (1968) No U-certificate film has won Best Picture since Oliver! – the last musical to do so since Chicago in 2002.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Midnight Cowboy (1969) On the flip-side, Midnight Cowboy became the first and last X-rated film to win Best Picture (the classification no longer exists).
Getty
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Patton (1970) Seven-time Oscar-winning film Patton made headlines when George C Scott refused to accept his Best Actor trophy due to a dislike of the voting process.
20th Century Fox
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The French Connection (1971) Two years after the US introduced its age certificate system, the first R-rated film scooped Best Picture.
20th Century Fox
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Godfather (1972) The highest-grossing film of 1972 was also the year's biggest Oscar winner, even though both Marlon Brando and Al Pacino boycotted the ceremony (the former won Best Actor and sent American Indian Rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather in his place).
Paramount Pictures.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Sting (1973) The Sting won seven out of its 10 Oscar nominations, with Julia Phillips becoming the first female producer to be nominated for and to win Best Picture.
Reuters
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Godfather Part II (1974) The first and second sequel to have won Best Picture to date (see also; The Return of the King .
Paramount Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Only three films have won an Academy Award in the five top categories, and this is one of them. It beat out fierce competition from Jaws , Barry Lyndon , Nashville and Dog Day Afternoon .
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Rocky (1976) Rocky became a sleeper hit at both the box office and the Academy Awards after receiving 10 nominations and winning three.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Annie Hall (1977) Annie Hall beat Star Wars to Oscars glory at the 50th edition of the ceremony.
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Deer Hunter (1978) This Best Picture winner also marked the first ever nomination for Meryl Streep who is currently the most nominated actor in Oscars history.
Universal
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Kramer vs Kramer (1979) Another Meryl Streep nomination followed for Kramer vs Kramer , which won five trophies in total.
Columbia Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Ordinary People (1980) Robert Redford's tear-jerking drama beat out hot favourite Raging Bull to the main prize.
Paramount Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Chariots of Fire (1981) The Brits found glory when Chariots of Fire won Best Picture and three other awards.
Enigma Productions
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Gandhi (1982) Richard Attenborough's epic historical drama received several trophies – and beat Steven Spielberg's E.T. to the top prize.
Columbia Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Terms of Endearment (1983) Terms of Endearment slipped through the cracks and won five Oscars from its impressive 11 nominations.
Paramount Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Amadeus (1984) Miloš Forman's lengthy fictionalised tale of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart rightly won the main prize and is one of the few films to have two nominations in the Best Actor category (Tom Hulce and F Murray Abraham).
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Out of Africa (1985) Director Sydney Pollack's Best Picture winner saw Meryl Streep receive yet another nomination.
Universal Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Platoon (1986) This Vietnam drama is the only film to have won Oliver Stone a Best Director Oscar (he also won Best Adapted Screenplay for Midnight Express almost 10 years before.
Orion Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Last Emperor (1987) Bernardo Bertolucci's epic film about the life of Chinese Emperor Puyi won out in what was a rather eclectic range of Best Picture nominees (Fatal Attraction , Moonstruck ). It won all nine Oscars it was nominated for.
Columbia Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Rain Man (1988) Yet another Best Picture winner that was the highest-grossing film of that year.
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Driving Miss Daisy (1989) The only film based on an off-Broadway production ever to win an Academy Award for Best Picture, and the first actor since Grand Hotel to not earn a nomination for its director (this would be repeated with Ben Affleck's Argo ).
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Dances with Wolves (1990) Kevin Costner's film became the first Western to win Best Picture since Cimarron in 1931.
Orion Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Silence of the Lambs (1991) The Silence of the Lambs is considered to be the only horror film that has ever won Best Picture – and is also the third of three films to take home trophies in the five main categories.
Orion Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Unforgiven (1992) Clint Eastwood capitalised on Dances With Wolves ' win a few years before by steering this Western to Oscars glory.
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Schindler's List (1993) Steven Spielberg's acclaimed drama failed to win any acting awards but took home seven Oscars in total, including the coveted Best Picture prize.
Universal Studios
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Forrest Gump (1994) Tom Hanks's first Oscar win came with Robert Zemeckis's Best Picture winner. Hanks would win the next year also for Philadelphia .
Paramount Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Braveheart (1995) Braveheart was considered an outside bet until it won Best Film – Drama at the Golden Globes the month before the Oscars were due to take place. Sure enough, it won the main prize.
20th Century Fox
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The English Patient (1996) This major award-winner took home nine out of 12 nominations.
Miramax
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Titanic (1997) Titanic is one of the most successful films in Oscars history. It tied All About Eve for the Oscar nominations (14) and won 11, tying with Ben-Hur .
20th Century Fox
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Shakespeare in Love (1998) Shakespeare in Love won seven of its 13 nominations.
Universal Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards American Beauty (1999) Sam Mendes's drama may have not been considered an immediate favourite, but one tactical DreamWorks campaign later and it went home with four five Oscars.
DreamWorks Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Gladiator (2000) The second highest-grossing film of 2000 went on to win five Oscars.
Dreamworks & Universal Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards A Beautiful Mind (2001) This drama, based on the life of Nobel Laureate John Nash (Russell Crowe), was a surprise winner at this year's ceremony.
Dreamworks & Universal Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Chicago (2002) Chicago was the first musical to win Best Picture since Oliver! in 1968.
Miramax Flms
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) The second sequel to win Best Picture won all 11 Academy Awards it was nominated for, and holds the record for the highest clean sweep in Oscars history.
New Line Productions
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Million Dollar Baby (2004) This Best Picture winner scored Clint Eastwood his second directing Oscar after Unforgiven .
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Crash (2005) Crash was the first Best Picture winner since Rocky (1976) to win only three Oscars.
Lionsgate Films
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Departed (2006) The first and last Martin Scorsese film to win Best Picture (it also won him a belated Director Oscar).
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards No Country for Old Men (2007) It was No Country for Old Men vs There Will Be Blood in one of the greatest Oscar races on record. It was the Coen brothers's crime thriller that reigned supreme.
Miramax Films
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Slumdog Millionaire (2008) Danny Boyle's sleeper hit Slumdog Millionaire became an Oscars success story, winning eight trophies in total.
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Hurt Locker (2009) One of the lowest-grossing films to ever win the main prize, The Hurt Locker also marked the first Best Picture winner by a female director (Kathryn Bigelow). This was also the first time the Best Picture nomination count went above five for the first time since 1943.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The King's Speech (2010) Many thought The Social Network could reign supreme over The King's Speech , but they were wrong - Tom Hooper's historical drama won four Oscars.
Momentum Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Artist (2011) The first fully black-and-white film to win since The Apartment Schindler's List had moments of colour), this film was also the first French-produced film to ever win the top prize.
Weinstein Company
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Argo (2012) Argo was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won three – although lead star and director was, in the words of Bradley Cooper, "robbed" of a Best Director nomination.
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards 12 Years a Slave (2013) Steve McQueen's film was considered one of the best of the year, and its three Oscar wins reflected this. It made McQueen the first black British producer to ever receive the award.
Lionsgate
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Birdman (2014) Michael Keaton may have missed out on Best Actor, but Birdman won the main prize.
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Spotlight (2015) Spotlight was the first Best Picture winner to win fewer than three Academy Awards since The Greatest Show on Earth in 1953
Open Road Films
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Moonlight (2016) Barry Jenkins's drama became the first film with an all-black cast, the first LGBTQ film and the second-lowest-grossing film domestically (behind The Hurt Locker ) to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
A24
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Shape of Water (2017) Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water is the second fantasy film to win Best Picture alongside The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King .
Twentieth Century Fox
There was clearly a ready-made audience in place for the prospective movie, a new generation introduced to the band thanks to the inspired use of “Bohemian Rhapsody” at the beginning of Penelope Spheeris’s cult comedy Wayne’s World (1992). When Ali G and Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen became attached, anticipation only grew, the fearless comedian seemingly ideal casting for Mercury.
Morgan admitted his anxieties about the forthcoming film, particularly with regard to offending the surviving band members, in an October 2009 interview with Cinemablend: “ I’m not sure how much they’ll like what I write. I think they’ll recognise the truth in it, but it’s a series of painful memories for them. I’m essentially writing about the most painful time in the band’s history.”
He also addressed the project’s plan to build up to Queen’s legendary Live Aid performance at Wembley Stadium on 13 July 1985 rather than focusing on Freddie’s personal life and tragic decline.
“I didn’t want to write an AIDS movie, to be honest with you. And then, I just looked the period - It’s sort of where he rejects [his bandmates] and comes back to them. It’s sort of like a family movie. It’s sort of like ‘I hate my family, I want to be independent, and then I come back’.”
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Try for free In September 2010, May told the BBC’s HARDtalk the film was pressing ahead. “I think we’ll try and keep ourselves out of it as much as we can,” he said, referring to himself, Taylor and bassist John Deacon.
“We have the perfect combination to tell the real story behind their success,” producer Graham King promised.
Although shooting had been pencilled in to begin in 2011, none took place. Speaking again to Cinemablend that October, Morgan was more cryptic about the untitled project’s prospects: “You never know until it’s done.”
By March 2012, Tom Hooper was being touted by Deadline as a potential director, having worked with Morgan on The Damned United and recently enjoyed awards success with The King’s Speech (2010). That June, Katy Perry denied rumours she would play Freddie’s former girlfriend, Mary Austin.
In October 2012, Brian May gave an update on his blog following a meeting with Taylor and Queen’s long-serving manager Jim Beech: “The pieces are all falling into place, though we are now on a slightly later schedule – filming is now scheduled to start in the spring [of 2013], with Sacha Baron Cohen playing Freddie. The film should be ready for release early in 2014.”
Freddie Mercury at Live Aid (Rex) (Rex Features) But disaster struck on 22 June 2013 when Cohen dropped out over creative differences, with Deadline reporting: “The reason is that the band wanted to make more of a PG movie about Queen while Cohen was counting on a gritty R-rated tell-all centered around the gifted gay singer.”
In September, Morgan conceded the project was “probably not going to happen” as Taylor elaborated in an interview with Mojo that the band had come to fear their erstwhile star would treat the role as “a joke”.
A month later, May told Classic Rock Cohen would have been too much of a “distraction”: “You have to really suspend that disbelief – the man who plays Freddie, you have to really believe is Freddie. And we didn’t believe that could really happen with Sacha.”
Dominic Cooper was reportedly considered as a replacement for Cohen before new life was unexpectedly breathed into the project in December when Ben Whishaw was cast, with actor Dexter Fletcher in the director’s chair, having caught the eye with Sunshine on Leith (2013), his film based on the music of the the Proclaimers.
The following year, the production stalled again when Fletcher departed, apparently not seeing “eye to eye [with the producers] on what will be an R-rated pic about Mercury”. Whishaw told Time Out that August: ”It seems to be on a back burner. It was going, then there were problems getting the script working.”
There were no further developments until November 2015, when Anthony McCarten was hired to revise the script on the strength of his work on the Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything (2014).
John Deacon, Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor and Brian May (Getty) (Getty Images) In March 2016, Sacha Baron Cohen appeared on American “shock jock” Howard Stern’s radio show to give his side of the story:
“A member of the band - I won’t say who – said: ‘You know, this is such a great movie because it’s got such an amazing thing that happens in the middle.’
“’What happens in the middle of the movie?’ He goes: ‘You know, Freddie dies.’ I go: ‘What happens in the second half of the movie?’ He goes: ‘We see how the band carries on from strength to strength.’
“I said: ‘Listen, not one person is going to see a movie where the lead character dies from AIDS and then you see how the band carries on.’”
Brian May hit back at the comedian, telling The Mail on Sunday : “Sacha became an arse. We had some nice times with Sacha kicking around ideas, but he went off and told untruths about what happened.”
The project finally picked up the momentum that would bring it to fruition in November 2016, when X-Men director Bryan Singer and Rami Malek stepped in. The actor, an Egyptian-American with the right jawline, was chosen in part because his African roots were loosely similar to Mercury’s, the singer born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar and raised in India.
Rami Malek as Freddie (20th Century Fox) Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in May 2017, Malek discussed the role and revealed his daunting experience of having to sing in front of May and Taylor at Abbey Road Studios.
The cast was filled out in August, with Ben Hardy playing Taylor, Gwilym Lee as May and Deacon being played by Joseph Mazzello, a former child star best remembered for Jurassic Park (1992). Justin Haythe, who adapted the Richard Yates novel Revolutionary Road for Sam Mendes in 2008, boarded to punch up the screenplay.
Shooting at last began in September, a huge replica Wembley set built in an airfield outside of Hemel Hempstead for the Live Aid scenes. Aiden Gillen and Tom Hollander joined the cast as Queen managers John Reid and Beech respectively while Mike Myers was cast as EMI executive Ray Foster, a thank you for Wayne's World .
The best films of 2018 (so far)Show all 17 1 /17The best films of 2018 (so far) The best films of 2018 (so far) The Guardians From its slow-burning beginning, The Guardians develops into an epic melodrama. It’s a wartime story in which, for a change, the men are relegated to supporting roles. It follows in a tradition of French rural family sagas like Jean De Florette or Manon Des Sources. The landscapes and the changing seasons play as much of a part in the story as the main characters.
The best films of 2018 (so far) Dark River Dark River offers little such consolation. It has some lyrical and delicate moments but the mood is generally overwhelmingly bleak and lugubrious. Incest and abuse don’t leave much space for any comic interludes. This is a powerful film with a grinding intensity about it. Light relief it isn’t but Dark River still has quite an impact.
Alamy
The best films of 2018 (so far) Zama Late on in Argentinean director Lucrecia Martel’s startling, highly original new feature, Zama, a character who has just had both his arms cut off, is advised to “shove your stumps in the sand … if you don’t bleed out, you’ll survive.” It’s a grisly, darkly humorous moment in a film that continually surprises us with both its brutality and its lyricism.
The Match Factory
The best films of 2018 (so far) The Breadwinner The most dispiriting aspect of this otherwise enrapturing Oscar-nominated animated feature is that its storyline still seems so current. The film depicts an Afghan society in which women don’t have a face. It is set during the Taliban rule, which lasted from the mid-1990s until late 2001, but this doesn’t feel like a period piece. Seventeen years after the Taliban were ousted from power in Afghanistan following the US invasion, the plight of women in the country appears hardly to have improved.
GKIDS
The best films of 2018 (so far) BlacKkKlansman Spike Lee’s work sometimes risks sensory overload. He fires off so many different ideas and storytelling styles that audiences can become bamboozled by his scattergun approach. BlacKkKlansman is one of his very best films because the digressions are as entertaining as ever but don’t get in the way of the main story.
AP
The best films of 2018 (so far) Early Man Much of the pleasure in Aardman films has always lain in their gently ironic, Alan Bennett-like humour. They take very exotic characters and subject matter but then deal with them in a matter-of-fact fashion. They make a virtue out of their own relative modesty. Early Man isn’t the flashiest animated feature that you’ll see this year but it is certainly the most likeable.
The best films of 2018 (so far) Isle of Dogs Like all of Wes Anderson’s work, Isle Of Dogs is very stylised, very offbeat and characterised by its extremely dry and often ironic humour. This Japanese-set stop-motion fable is also gorgeous to look at – packed full of intricate visual detail. It deals with some weighty themes (ethnic cleansing, fascism and corruption) but does so in an idiosyncratic fashion.
The best films of 2018 (so far) Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri Writer-director Martin McDonagh has a host of award-winning plays behind him but his movies haven’t always lived up to his stage work. This one certainly does. It shares some of the dark and nihilistic humour found in McDonagh’s previous film, Seven Psychopaths.
The best films of 2018 (so far) A Quiet Place In an era of wearisome poltergeist movies, haunted house stories and torture porn, A Quiet Place is a refreshingly pared-down and very original affair. Director John Krasinski relies on editing, sound effects and off-screen action to crank up the tension. We do see the creatures from time to time, sometimes even in extreme closeup. They are very grotesque, bigger versions of the polyp-like succubus which exploded out of John Hurt’s stomach in Alien. However, the most terrifying moments here come when the humans are waiting for them to appear, desperately hoping that they won’t.
Paramount Pictures
The best films of 2018 (so far) Lady Bird Lady Bird is one of the best American coming-of-age films since Barry Levinson’s Diner. Written and directed by Greta Gerwig, it offers an utterly winning mix of humour, poignancy and sharp-eyed social observation. Gerwig approaches her subject matter with the same tenderness and affectionate irony with which the adolescent Lady Bird regards Sacramento. Gerwig also shows Lady Bird’s heroism as the young heroine strives against the odds to become the very best version of herself she can be.
A24
The best films of 2018 (so far) Phantom Thread If Phantom Thread is indeed Daniel Day-Lewis’s final film as an actor, he is going out on a wondrously bizarre note. This must be the oddest film in his career, one in which he gives a typically commanding but very idiosyncratic performance. Almost everything here is jarring – but generally in a very positive way.
The best films of 2018 (so far) First Reformed It is not so long ago that Paul Schrader seemed to be giving up on cinema. The American writer-director (whose credits include Taxi Driver, American Gigolo and Affliction) had taken to making movies like the sour Hollywood satire The Canyons with Lindsay Lohan and the cartoonishly violent Dog Eat Dog, shot cheaply, aimed at a VOD audience. The former had a montage of closed-down movie theatres. In interviews, Schrader struck a gloomy note about the future of the industry. This is why First Reformed is so refreshing. This is not just Schrader’s best film in a very long while. It is also a re-affirmation of the director’s belief in the medium.
Rex
The best films of 2018 (so far) The Happy Prince Oscar Wilde goes to ruin in Rupert Everett’s debut feature as director. Everett also wrote and stars in the film, giving a grandstanding performance as the Irish writer at the end of his life, after his release from prison, where he has been doing hard labour for “gross indecency”. This is a moving and surprising biopic that squeezes out every last drop of pathos from its subject matter.
BBC Films
The best films of 2018 (so far) Black Panther Black Panther is not only one of the most entertaining recent superhero films but has an intelligence and a political dimension that such inchoate offerings as Suicide Squad and Justice League completely lacked. It is an action movie which touches on Pan-Africanism and which owes as much to Malcolm X as it does to Batman or Captain America.
Marvel Studios/Disney
The best films of 2018 (so far) Sicilian Ghost Story Sicilian Ghost Story is a genre-bending affair that combines elements of teen romance, gothic psycho-drama and political thriller. It is loosely based on a true story of a boy called Giuseppe Di Matteo whose father, an ex-member of the Sicilian Mafia, turned “grass” against his erstwhile associates. The Mafia responded by kidnapping Giuseppe and keeping him in captivity for nearly 800 days.
Altitude
The best films of 2018 (so far) First Man First Man is all about understated heroism. It’s affecting precisely because Armstrong (played with quiet intensity by Ryan Gosling) doesn’t feel the continual need to boast about his mission. The film is a tearjerker but a very subtle one.
AP
The best films of 2018 (so far) Dogman Dogman is one of the best Italian films of recent times, a modern day neo realist fable that bears comparison with the great work of Fellini, Rossellini, De Sica et al. Its main character, the dog groomer Marcello (Marcello Fonte), is a wonderful creation: loveable, vulnerable, seedy and comic all at the same time.
Curzon Artificial Eye
With all finally progressing according to plan, 20th Century Fox suddenly announced on 1 December that it has “temporarily halted production on Bohemian Rhapsody due to the unexpected unavailability of Bryan Singer”. According to The Hollywood Reporter , the cast had mutinied over Singer’s behaviour on set, the director allegedly arriving late on a regular basis.
The BBC, meanwhile, reported Singer’s absence was due to “a personal health matter concerning Bryan and his family”.
Three days later, Singer's departure from Bohemian Rhapsody was confirmed, the director issuing a statement saying Fox had refused to allow him to return to the US to care for an ill parent and denying he had fallen out with Malek.
“I wanted nothing more than to be able to finish this project and help honour the legacy of Freddie Mercury and Queen, but Fox would not permit me to do so because I needed to temporarily put my health, and the health of my loved ones, first,” he said.
Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Dexter Fletcher returned to oversee the last two weeks of shooting and post-production, finally bringing the saga to a close.
In an interview with The Guardian ahead of Bohemian Rhapsody ‘s release in October, Malek addressed his decision to take on the role, describing it as a “gun-to-the-head moment”.
“What do you do? And I like to think if it’s a fight or flight situation, I’m going to fight. The scariest endeavours that I’ve chosen to take in my life have been the most fulfilling and rewarding. And this has proven to defend that equation.”
On the film’s approach to Mercury himself, Malek reflected: “I think if you don’t celebrate his life, and his struggles, and how complicated he was, and how transformative he was – and wallow instead in the sadness of what he endured and his ultimate death – then that could be a disservice to the profound, vibrant, radiant nature of such an indelible human being.”
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