This film had been in the making for quite a while--with various complications. In 2015/6 someone (Brian May?) said the best part of the film was halfway through when Freddie died. Which made no sense, for a film that was about Freddie.
Sasha Baron Cohen was going to play Freddie, but then he quit. And no--I don't follow this kind of thing, but I just did a Google Search on "Freddie Dies Halfway Through" and it reminded me of this stuff and served up another page which claims there was never a script where he died half way through the movie.
So yeah, this was a movie that had a bit of a rocky road to screen, apparently.
I was interested, because Queen was not a band I knew much about. I first really noticed Queen when Wayne's World came out my junior year of high school, because the film brought Bohemian Rhapsody back into vogue.*
In many ways it has a lot in common with other music bio-pics--Walk the Line, Velvet Goldmine, Amadeus**, etc. Artist starts in obscurity, artist makes it, fame goes to artist's head and he becomes a dick, resolutions afterwards vary.
In one way however this film was different (at least from my perspective). By 2018, everyone has access to youtube, so anyone--even those of us who didn't know Queen existed in 1985--can see Queen's Live Aid performance. This means that when Rami Malek and his and the rest of the cast do the Live Aid concert, they are redoing something that anyone in the audience could have seen. They are not giving their interpretation of the characters-they are reproducing the characters every gesture. I'm guessing this made for an interesting acting experience.
I'm sure the production team was aware of this and played with it--the film starts with a man in a wife-beater and stone washed wrangler jeans with a studded arm band going on stage (without showing his face). But they don't have to--we all know recognize the outfit.
*While waiting in the East Caf to go on for Sing the song came on the radio and we all--actors, singers, orchestra, techs sung along.
**yes, this is part of the same swim lane as Walk the Line. Don't believe me--consider Freddy playing the piano underneath it/backwards--total hat tip to Amadeus
