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UK actor Sacha Baron-Cohen (left) quit the film on Queen frontman Freddie Mercury over "creative differences".Photos: AFP

Borat star quits Baron-Cohen Freddie Mercury film

British comic actor Sacha Baron Cohen has pulled out of a long-planned film about Queen frontman Freddie Mercury due to "creative differences" with producers over the movie's tone. The as-yet untitled film is being made by GK Films, in partnership with Hollywood A-lister Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal's Tribeca Productions and Queen Films.

AFP

British comic actor Sacha Baron Cohen has pulled out of a long-planned film about Queen frontman Freddie Mercury due to "creative differences" with producers over the movie's tone.

"Sacha has pulled out," the actor's publicist, Matthew Labov, said, refusing to elaborate.

The as-yet untitled film is being made by GK Films, in partnership with Hollywood A-lister Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal's Tribeca Productions and Queen Films.

Baron Cohen, whose hit movie characters include bumbling Kazakh reporter Borat, gay Austrian fashionista Bruno and wannabe gangster Ali G, was confirmed as linked to the project nearly three years ago.

Peter Morgan, who scripted the films and has written the screenplay for the film, planned to focus on the years leading up to Queen's stellar performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert. Mercury died of Aids-related pneumonia in 1991 at the age of 45.

Queen remains one of the world's best-selling bands.

Baron Cohen is working on a spy spoof for Hollywood studio Paramount, focused on a secret agent who goes on the run with his football hooligan brother.

He is also working on a film called , about Hong Kong billionaire Cecil Chao, who offered HK$500 million to a man who could woo and marry his lesbian daughter.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Borat star quits Baron-Cohen Freddie Mercury film
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