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Sacha Baron Cohen to play Freddie Mercury

Great Mambo Chicken said:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11340336

I think SBC can pull it off (ooh er, missus) even though I think he's a bit too old to play young Freddie from the 70's.

So who is camper, Freddie or Bruno?

It's hard to think who else could have been cast for the role. Any suggestions for younger and older Freddies?
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Good choice, IMO. Although, usually with these music biopics the star does his or her own vocals. I can't see that happening here, because no one on earth could come close to replicating Freddy's voice.
 
I'm not holding my breath, Freddie's mother vetoed the the last script. I suppose the rest of the band must think it's OK if they've agreed to license the music for it.

Well, at least John Deacon must think it's OK, Brian and Roger would sell their own mothers for a buck. We Will Rock You with 5ive anyone? :wtf:
 
Same story on Yahoo

The comparison pictures are surprisingly similar here, I can't think of anyone who looks anything like Freddie.

And definitely nobody sounds anything like him either.

One of a kind, that one. I'm glad to have grown up listening to their best stuff.
 
I've yet to see him in a role where he hasn't been a total idiot. Borat is only funny the first time. Bruno was the same old shtick. Talladega Nights was dreadful. Sweeney Todd, while his best, was still not up to par.

Why can't they find an actor to do justice to the role instead of just grabbing a name for sales?
 
I don't think the look is the most important thing, since they can roughly match his appearance with makeup and prosthetics if necessary. I think having someone who can at least somewhat do him justice replicating his singing style and theatricality would be more important, unless they decide to just do lip synching.

To that end, casting real singers would be a good idea. I would suggest Matthew Bellamy of Muse, Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, or Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars since he also is an accomplished actor, though I don't recall if he's done any British accents before.

The funny thing is, one person who looks exactly like older Freddie Mercury is John Stossel, though his nasally whine would make you want to set fire to the theater if you had to endure two hours of listening to him.
 
Locutus of Bored said:
I don't think the look is the most important thing, since they can roughly match his appearance with makeup and prosthetics if necessary. I think having someone who can at least somewhat do him justice replicating his singing style and theatricality would be more important, unless they decide to just do lip synching.

To that end, casting real singers would be a good idea. I would suggest Matthew Bellamy of Muse, Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, or Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars since he also is an accomplished actor, though I don't recall if he's done any British accents before.
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No amount of prosthetics or makeup could possibly make any of those 3 look remotely anything like Freddie Mercury.

And I'm pretty sure that it's much easier and cheaper to dub a singing voice than to transform an actor's appearance through CGI... :lol:
 
DevilEyes said:
Locutus of Bored said:
I don't think the look is the most important thing, since they can roughly match his appearance with makeup and prosthetics if necessary. I think having someone who can at least somewhat do him justice replicating his singing style and theatricality would be more important, unless they decide to just do lip synching.

To that end, casting real singers would be a good idea. I would suggest Matthew Bellamy of Muse, Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, or Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars since he also is an accomplished actor, though I don't recall if he's done any British accents before.
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No amount of prosthetics or makeup could possibly make any of those 3 look remotely anything like Freddie Mercury.

And I'm pretty sure that it's much easier and cheaper to dub a singing voice than to transform an actor's appearance through CGI... :lol:
Click to expand...

That why I said the looks are not the most important thing. But to counter your point, Jack Nicholson didn't look much like Jimmy Hoffa until they covered his face in prosthetics, and Anthony Hopkins or Frank Langela don't look much like Richard Nixon but still pulled off believable and compelling performances by getting the mannerisms and voice down. So it can work out either way. I just think it's far more important to not lip synch and to have a competent singer with a similar persona or a decent acting capability playing the role then it is to fixate on making him look identical to Mercury.

Nor did I say anything about using CGI, so I don't know where you're getting that from.
 
Locutus of Bored said:
I don't think the look is the most important thing, since they can roughly match his appearance with makeup and prosthetics if necessary. I think having someone who can at least somewhat do him justice replicating his singing style and theatricality would be more important, unless they decide to just do lip synching.

To that end, casting real singers would be a good idea. I would suggest Matthew Bellamy of Muse, Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, or Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars since he also is an accomplished actor, though I don't recall if he's done any British accents before.

The funny thing is, one person who looks exactly like older Freddie Mercury is John Stossel, though his nasally whine would make you want to set fire to the theater if you had to endure two hours of listening to him.
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None of those dudes can sing like Freddy. Not at all. Especially The Darkness guy with his nasally falsetto.
 
Locutus of Bored said:
DevilEyes said:
Locutus of Bored said:
I don't think the look is the most important thing, since they can roughly match his appearance with makeup and prosthetics if necessary. I think having someone who can at least somewhat do him justice replicating his singing style and theatricality would be more important, unless they decide to just do lip synching.

To that end, casting real singers would be a good idea. I would suggest Matthew Bellamy of Muse, Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, or Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars since he also is an accomplished actor, though I don't recall if he's done any British accents before.
Click to expand...
No amount of prosthetics or makeup could possibly make any of those 3 look remotely anything like Freddie Mercury.

And I'm pretty sure that it's much easier and cheaper to dub a singing voice than to transform an actor's appearance through CGI... :lol:
Click to expand...

That why I said the looks are not the most important thing. But to counter your point, Jack Nicholson didn't look much like Jimmy Hoffa until they covered his face in prosthetics, and Anthony Hopkins or Frank Langela don't look much like Richard Nixon but still pulled off believable and compelling performances by getting the mannerisms and voice down. So it can work out either way. I just think it's far more important to not lip synch and to have a competent singer with a similar persona or a decent acting capability playing the role then it is to fixate on making him look identical to Mercury.

Nor did I say anything about using CGI, so I don't know where you're getting that from.
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CGI was my comment on how improbable it is, IMO, to make any of those 3 look anything like Mercury even with a lot of prosthetics. IMO, the differences are greater than between Hopkins/Langella and Nixon or Jack Nicholson and Hoffa. It's not necessary for someone to look exactly like the person they're portraying, but there has to be at least some general resemblance (like Joaquin Phoenix/Johnny Cash). In these cases, you'd have to apply Star Trek level full face and body prostethics... and I'm talking Morn type of prosthetics rather than Quark or Worf. :lol:

And besides, the voice is even more of a problem, because you wouldn't be having an actor pretending to be Mercury, you'd be having Matt Bellamy or Justin Hawkins singing exactly the way Matt Bellamy or Justin Hawkins sing, only for some reason the movie will be telling you that it's actually Freddie Mercury, which would make no sense. Just like it never made sense to pretend that Diana Ross sang like Billie Holiday. No, that was Diana Ross singing and looking like Diana Ross. If you're not going to dub the voice, then it's better to find someone who is not a famous singer and who sounds approximately like the person they're meant to portray (like Sam Riley as Ian Curtis in Control), then to cast another famous singer whose voice is very recognizable. Now, I must say I haven't heard Leto's music and all I know of his singing is what I heard in "My So-Called Life" (and OK, I don't think he's exactly that famous as a musician), but AFAIR he sounds nothing at all like Mercury. Neither do the other two.

Nerdius Maximus said:
None of those dudes can sing like Freddy. Not at all. Especially The Darkness guy with his nasally falsetto.
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I adore Muse and I think Matt Bellamy is an amazing singer, but he doesn't sound like Freddie Mercury, he sounds like Matt Bellamy. Not to mention that he looks absolutely nothing like Mercury, either.
 
Haven't seen SBC in a dramatic role before but I hadn't seen Jim Carrey in one before The Truman Show or Robin Williams before Dead Poet's Society, etc etc. He's not a bad physical match (the oft-rumoured Johnny Depp and John Barrowman would have been totally wrong) and he can do flamboyant. Not to mention he's capable of growing a decent 'tache.
 
I'm sure he'll be under pressure to do a killer Queen impersonation, hopefully this project won't be another one that bites the dust.
 
Why is it a problem if he's lip-synced?

The majority of the movie won't have him singing, I'm sure, it'll probably be about the drama around the music. So the one or two times we see him on stage "singing", it really won't matter at all (especially if they dub with a live performance of the band).

LaBamba, though older (I can't think of any recent examples off the top of my head) did well enough with this method.
 
SBC *can* sing, can't he? (Sure, most of what we've heard on that point was as King Julien the Lemur, but hey, you gotta start somewhere. :lol: )

The question is, can he do a serious dramatic role?
 
DevilEyes said:
Locutus of Bored said:
DevilEyes said:
No amount of prosthetics or makeup could possibly make any of those 3 look remotely anything like Freddie Mercury.

And I'm pretty sure that it's much easier and cheaper to dub a singing voice than to transform an actor's appearance through CGI... :lol:
Click to expand...

That why I said the looks are not the most important thing. But to counter your point, Jack Nicholson didn't look much like Jimmy Hoffa until they covered his face in prosthetics, and Anthony Hopkins or Frank Langela don't look much like Richard Nixon but still pulled off believable and compelling performances by getting the mannerisms and voice down. So it can work out either way. I just think it's far more important to not lip synch and to have a competent singer with a similar persona or a decent acting capability playing the role then it is to fixate on making him look identical to Mercury.

Nor did I say anything about using CGI, so I don't know where you're getting that from.
Click to expand...
CGI was my comment on how improbable it is, IMO, to make any of those 3 look anything like Mercury even with a lot of prosthetics. IMO, the differences are greater than between Hopkins/Langella and Nixon or Jack Nicholson and Hoffa. It's not necessary for someone to look exactly like the person they're portraying, but there has to be at least some general resemblance (like Joaquin Phoenix/Johnny Cash). In these cases, you'd have to apply Star Trek level full face and body prostethics... and I'm talking Morn type of prosthetics rather than Quark or Worf. :lol:

And besides, the voice is even more of a problem, because you wouldn't be having an actor pretending to be Mercury, you'd be having Matt Bellamy or Justin Hawkins singing exactly the way Matt Bellamy or Justin Hawkins sing, only for some reason the movie will be telling you that it's actually Freddie Mercury, which would make no sense. Just like it never made sense to pretend that Diana Ross sang like Billie Holiday. No, that was Diana Ross singing and looking like Diana Ross. If you're not going to dub the voice, then it's better to find someone who is not a famous singer and who sounds approximately like the person they're meant to portray (like Sam Riley as Ian Curtis in Control), then to cast another famous singer whose voice is very recognizable. Now, I must say I haven't heard Leto's music and all I know of his singing is what I heard in "My So-Called Life" (and OK, I don't think he's exactly that famous as a musician), but AFAIR he sounds nothing at all like Mercury. Neither do the other two.

Nerdius Maximus said:
None of those dudes can sing like Freddy. Not at all. Especially The Darkness guy with his nasally falsetto.
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I adore Muse and I think Matt Bellamy is an amazing singer, but he doesn't sound like Freddie Mercury, he sounds like Matt Bellamy. Not to mention that he looks absolutely nothing like Mercury, either.
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Well, yeah, that's what I mean. I don't mind Muse at all, but the singer has a completely different style than Freddy Mercury. Freddy had that powerful, operatic voice that's just too unique to be duplicated. There's been people of comparable vocal ability, I suppose, but when you watch live performances with Queen, he was as good as he was in the studio, and I don't think any other rock vocalists have ever achieved that. Their voices crack, they can't hit the high notes, etc. And that's fine, that's an accepted part of a live performance. But Freddy was just that good. I will say, though, that this performance with George Michael fronting Queen has always blown me away. Queen should have picked him over Paul Rogers for their "reunion" tour or whatever you want to call it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmqWkjEPWps&feature=fvst
 
Mr. Adventure said:
I'm sure he'll be under pressure to do a killer Queen impersonation, hopefully this project won't be another one that bites the dust.
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