This week, on May 15th, the first teaser trailer for the upcoming Queen film ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ dropped. And it dropped hard. Set for a November, 2nd release in the United States and an October 24th in Great Britain. The film is about Queen’s journey to the top. Mostly focusing on front man Freddie Mercury’s life. The film chronicles the ups and downs of Mercury’s life. And the musical vision he had for the world. Starring Rami Maleek as Freddie Mercury, Gwilym Lee as Brian May, Ben Hardy as Roger Taylor and Joseph Mazello as John Deacon.
What’s really crazy is how much the actors look like the members of Queen. Particularly Gwilym Lee as Brian May. In the short cut of the trailer when Freddie tells Brian that the ‘operatic part’ of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is after his solo and he looks up, I thought it was CGI. That’s how much Lee looks like Brian May. And Maleek captures Freddie Mercury’s look and energy flawlessly. Particularly in the 80’s era footage. Which makes sense when you factor in the fact that May and Taylor are the music producers of the film. And I’m sure they were given a certain amount of power on set. To make sure that the portrayals of the stories and characters are as accurate as possible.
I’m super stoked that this movie finally saw the light of day. We knew that there was a ‘Queen’ movie in production for years. Sasha Baron Cohen was the original cast member to play Mercury. But he has a falling out with May and Taylor. Taylor suggested that Cohen might be a distraction due to his reputation as a prankster comedian. So then Cohen’s out. Then director’s come in, get fired. The film can’t find any pace to get produced. There’s script rewrite after rewrite. Then finally some consistency was formed. Maleek was cast as Mercury and shortly after Dexter Fletcher was hired to direct the film after Newton Thomas Sigel was fired. And now the film is finished and ready for the public. But we have to wait until fall. Which is smart on the producers part because that’s the beginning of awards season.
The teaser looks bad ass. I don’t know much more to say about it than that. The trailer has shot up to the number one video on youtube. Pulling in five million views on it’s first day. This is setting up to be the film that everyone sees in 2018.
