Skoob Entertainment News Supremo Buffty Ginslinger, was quick to pour cold water on reports that Borat/Bruno star, Sacha Baron Cohen is to play Freddie Mercury in an upcoming biopic, co-produced by Robert DeNiro's TriBeCa Productions company.
"Nonsense, dear boy," Ginslinger opined. "Never happen. It couldn't possibly happen, because I own the rights to any biopic about the late Queen star. He signed them over to me on a scrap of paper in a Soho pub one evening. With a biro. So those rights rightfully belong to me, and if anybody else tries to take advantage, I shall utilise the full weight of the law."
Ginslinger went on to explain that he had developed two pages of a script for a Mercury biopic, and had already tentatively cast Stephen Lewis (Blakey out of On The Buses and Smiler out of Last Of The Summer Wine) as Freddie Mercury, and Anita Dobson (Angie out of EastEnders) as real life husband Brian May. It is said that preproduction on the Ginslinger biopic was well under way when these recent announcements were made.
"We were going to have Live Aid in 85 at Wembley as the climax of the movie," Ginslinger explained. "I'd lined up Christopher Biggins to play Sir Elton John, Nigel Havers to play Sir Bob Geldof, and Phil Collins to play David Bowie. If there is a biopic of Freddie Mercury, it will be my production. Funnily enough I've actually written to Robert DeNiro asking if he fancies playing Phil Collins, and to Sacha Baron Cohen asking him if he fancies playing Kool And The Gang."
More as we get it.
