Freddie Mercury Biopic To Film Early 2013 [VIDEO]

Brian May says that the upcoming Freddie Mercury biopic featuring Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen will begin filming in the spring of 2013 and will be ready for release in early 2014. On Wednesday (October 10th), May -- who along with Roger Taylor will serve as an executive producer on the film -- posted a message on his official website (BrianMay.com) saying: "Ah. . . I promised news of yesterday's Queen band meeting. Well, it was just Roger and (manager) Jim Beach, and myself. . . Our main agenda was the Freddie film, which, I'm happy to tell you, is on course. Much of our discussion was about contractual things. . . it's pretty complex and determining who is responsible for what. The pieces are all falling into place, though we are now on a slightly later schedule -- filming is now scheduled to start in the Spring, with Sacha Baron Cohen playing Freddie. The film should be ready for release early in 2014."

He went on to reveal, "We did make some other plans, but they will have to stay under wraps for now. Being in Queen is -- bizarrely -- as full of surprising twists and turns as ever -- 40 years since we first got together, and 20 years after losing Freddie. But of course Freddie is in so many ways very much alive. He must be wryly smiling somewhere!!!"

Drummer Roger Taylor told us that over the last two decades without Freddie Mercury, he and Brian May have come to terms with what they accomplished in their two decades together: "He's bigger now than he ever was. You come to a realization that that is what you really are, that is what you've done, that defines what you are -- and be content with that, and so, make it good. I'm very proud of the fact that our music is still on the radio and that Freddie is still a part of popular culture and that really makes me feel that I've done something then."