Freddie Mercury Biopic Confirmed, Borat Actor To Star

Queen guitarist Brian May has confirmed that a Freddie Mercury biopic is in the works, with the tribute to the late Queen frontman due out early 2014.

In an update on his website, May also confirmed that Borat and Bruno funnyman Sacha Baron Cohen will be playing the lead role.

Reporting information from the latest 'band meeting', May said that the film - titled Mercury -“is on course” and that current discussions are surrounding contractual issues.

“The pieces are all falling into place, though we are now on a slightly later schedule,” he continued. “Filming is now scheduled to start in the Spring [Australia's autumn], with Sacha Baron Cohen playing Freddie. The film should be ready for release early in 2014.”

Baron Cohen is best known for his comedy characters, including Ali-G, Borat, Bruno and Admiral General Aladeen from latest film The Dictator. It was first rumoured that he would take on the role of Mercury, who died in 1991, in 2010.

In his note May added: “We did make some other plans, but they will have to stay under wraps for now. Being in Queen is – bizarrely – as full of surprising twists and turns as ever - 40 years since we first got together, and 20 years after losing Freddie. But of course Freddie is in so many ways very much alive. He must be wryly smiling somewhere!”

Here's Baron Cohen taking on another British hero, David Beckham: