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.

The MP3 album deal of the day over at Amazon today is Queen‘s Greatest Hits for only $3.99.

This hits album contains 17 awesome tunes from the classic rock band’s extensive back catalog, making this sale a steal! This is the first greatest hits volume and contains the most popular songs like “Fat Bottomed Girls,” “We Will Rock You,” “We Are The Champions,” and “Another One Bites The Dust.”

If you’d like a physical copy of Greatest Hits, the CD is available for only $9.99. A “We Will Rock You” hits album is also on sale for only $3.99 in MP3 format. There’s also a 2-CD set, Queen: Greatest Hits I & II, that’s $13.79.

Today marks the day that 21 years ago the front man of the British rock group Queen, the irrepressibly colorful Freddie Mercury, succumbed to complications of AIDS. The band had carried on after the death of their singer, but it was never the same; the band had matched the intensity and sonic wallop to the eardrums its singer vocally postulated, and was one of those lighting in a bottle, one of a kind situations, ala a Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Doors, The Who, and The Beatles (many of those bands acting as an influence to Queen). Mercury’s death created a void in rock/pop music for all time and also set a standard for singing excellence for all time as well.

Mercury was gifted with a vocal range that reached untold galaxies; he had perfected the term bombast, as Queen’s self-indulgent musical posturing never sunk them, largely in part to A) the ferocity and flowery he/she kind of style manifested by Mercury, with his boldness on stage, and his flamboyance somewhere in the middle of Marc Bolan and Elton John and B) the fact that they were mainly the only band engaging in a kind of theater rock/cabaret progressive (in the early days of the band’s career) style, which ultimately became their instant trademark.

All week, Amazon has been offering up Lightning Deals, limited quantities of various products for a discounted price for a 4-hour window of time, as a prelude to the biggest shopping day of the year — Black Friday. You have to be on the lookout for these deals and once the item runs out, the sale is over. Meaning, if you see something on sale that you want, buy it immediately before it’s gone.

Amazon has released the Lightning Deal schedule and prices for Music CDs and Box Sets for Friday, November 25, starting at 5AM PST (that’s 8AM EST) and running through 9pm PST. See a sample of some of the Black Friday deals here below, along with more information on how these special deals work. You can visit the main Sale calendar page to see ALL the deals and the exact times they’ll be going up.

Here’s some of the items coming up on sale:

Nirvana – Nevermind [4 LP Deluxe Edition]
35.99

Queen 40 Limited Edition Collector’s Box Set
$35.99

Right now, Amazon is selling Queen‘s Greatest Hits – We Will Rock You Edition in MP3 format for only $3.99.

This hits album contains 20 awesome tunes from the classic rock band’s extensive back catalog, making this sale a steal! This is the first greatest hits volume and contains the most popular songs like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We Will Rock You,” and “Another One Bites The Dust.”

If you’d like a physical copy of Greatest Hits – We Will Rock You Edition, the CD is available for only $6.99.