Update: Queen guitarist Brian May says his manager's comment about the progress of the Freddie Mercury biopic was actually a joke. "I'm afraid some folks might have taken it seriously!” May said .
Sacha Baron Cohen will not be writing, producing, directing, and starring in the movie.
It has been confirmed that Sacha Baron Cohen (The Ali G Show, Borat) will star as frontman Freddie Mercury in the long-gestating Queen biopic. He will also produce, write and direct the film.
The band's manager Jim Beach made the announcement during the Artist & Management Awards in London, saying "You have probably followed the saga of the famous Queen-Freddie Mercury biopic which has been developing in Hollywood for the last seven years. An important breakthrough is that we have now managed to persuade Sacha Baron Cohen to write, produce and direct this movie, and he has also agreed to star."
Cohen in Hugo
Back in 2013, over "creative differences." It turned out that the late singer's bandmates didn't feel audiences could separate Cohen's wild persona from Mercury's.
Queen's Brian May said at the time, "In the end, we felt that his presence in the movie would be very distracting. What led us to that conclusion was the last three movies that he's made - The Dictator, Les Miserables and Hugo."
Fellow surviving member Roger Taylor also shared the sentiment, saying, "We didn't want it to be a joke. We want people to be moved."
At various points, Dominic Cooper, Daniel Radcliffe and Ben Whishaw were all suggested to be potential stars in the film, while Stephen Frears, Tom Hooper, Dexter Fletcher and David Fincher were all mentioned as possible directors.
Sacha Baron Cohen , set to hit theaters in 2016. He is also , alongside Mark Strong (Green Lantern) and Isla Fisher.
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Rachel is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at .