We found out that Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen was going to play Freddie Mercury, the late great singer of the band Queen, back in 2010. But now, sadly, the actor has been forced to walk away from the project.

Cohen brought in two-time Academy Award nominee Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) to write the script, and he had been looking for potential directors to take on the biopic. Unfortunately he could never find approval from the remaining members of Queen, who have final say on both the screenplay and director. According to sources, it was this same final say from Queen that also ultimately led to Cohen’s departure. While he was aiming to make a more mature, R-rated tell-all about Mercury, Queen seems determined for the movie to be a more family-friendly PG-rated biopic.

Who will be brought in to star now and why it took three years to figure out that the two parties were this far apart in their vision for the movie is unknown at the moment, but surely more information will surface eventually.

If Sacha Baron Cohen isn’t playing Freddie Mercury, who do you want to see take on the larger-than-life role?

[Source: Deadline]