As noted upthread, yes. He was the original choice for Freddie, when it was in pre-production – looking at the Wikipedia entry for the film, that was way back in 2010 (I hadn’t realized that that much time had passed – time fiies). Cohen left the project in 2013, long before shooting actually began, apparently due to a variety of differences of opinion with the production team and the band.
Sorry I missed the SBC mention earlier.
You were. 
And here is a cool 3-year-old singing parts of “Bohemian Rhapsody”:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/t/adorable-three-year-old-sings-queens-bohemian-rhapsody/vi-BBOVAF6
Here is one of the reviews I read that was very angry on behalf of Freddie Mercury. They are also angry about some factual errors (specifically when he revealed he was HIV positive) but I give biopics some leeway on that. They aren’t documentaries.
I also became interested from the trailer and will probably see it either way but I was wondering if this reviewer was on to something.
On my phone so I can’t embed the link properly but here it is:
I saw the film yesterday. It drags early on - I found myself checking my watch after about half an hour - but it recovers and I enjoyed it. Pop music isn’t my thing but the film concentrates more on Mercury’s character and the interplay with other members of Queen and his lovers. There’s plenty of music too.
They’ve used a combo of him, Freddie and a soundalike.
That’s the triumphant finale.
Eh - I’m a BIG fan of albums 1-3, and Day/Night have their moments. But IMO 85 was well past their prime.
By that point, their popularity had definitely faded in the US, and even as a big Queen fan, I don’t necessarily disagree with you. However, the point behind ending the film with Live Aid is, I think, the fact that Queen’s performance there is widely felt to have completely stolen the show.
Right—that’s the point: that a band that was widely perceived as “well past their prime” would turn out to be the highlight of the whole show.
I can sort of see how the reviewer could take that impression away from the movie, but I think he has got it exactly ass backward. Your average Queen fan wants to see Freddie, and couldn’t care two hoots what Brian May and Roger Taylor were up to as individuals. Realistically this is a Freddie biopic, not a Queen one. In having that focus on Freddie the rest of the band, as individuals in any case, are almost background characters. It’s for that reason the movie focuses on Freddie’s misdemeanours more than the other band members, not out of any drive by Brian and Roger to posthumously malign Freddie and make themselves look like saints.
I think my thoughts have overall been conveyed by you all, so I’ll just say I am really looking forward to seeing this this week. Hopefully Movie Pass will feature it the day I want to watch it.
Maybe I am wrong, and I was not around in the 70’s and earlier 80’s when the band was in their prime. But I have heard that Queen were initially not regarded as a cool band, in the vein that Led Zeppelin and others were. They were hardly darlings of the critics. So I think you may not be alone.
Their stature supposedly has gone up in the years since Mercury’s death in 1991. Not to say they were not successful.
Can anyone who was around back in the day confirm this, for I have heard this sentiment before.
didn’t they have an comeback album/tour in 86 that had extremely mixed reactions ? I think that’s when people noticed freddy was starting to look ill…….
I still say bowie and Freddie not singing under pressure live ever is one of rocks great missed moments
The film touches on this.
“Cool” depends on whom you ask, but I think “hardly darlings of the critics” is fair. I remember when The Works came out in 1984, Rolling Stone’s review paid it the backhanded compliment of calling it “perhaps the first record to refute the maxim that the words Queen and listenable are, of necessity, mutually exclusive.”
I’ve always thought Brian May one of the most interesting persons in rock. And as much as I appreciated Freddie’s vocals, I loved that guitar sound. One of the reasons I favored the first 3 albums - the guitar more prominent.
Well, by the time The Works came out they were truly past their hit-making prime - at least in the USA - and beginning to work towards the big arena tours of non-US venues. Hell, post 1982 they never again played in the States.
But yes, as a major Queen fan in the 70s and 80s there was a lot of disregard for them in the critic circles. While they had a string of big hits and albums with really new sounds beginning with Killer Queen from the Sheer Heart Attack album, the critics were beginning to fall in love with punk and a more stripped down and raw sound. Exactly what Queen wasn’t.
Still, they survived it. Hell, they may have thrived on it. There’s a lot to be said for being popular instead of ‘critically appreciated’.
The way I remember it, growing up in the 80’s (born in '71), was that Queen wasn’t all that popular, and didn’t get a lot of radio airplay. I remember “Another One Bites the Dust” being a hit when I was in elementary school, then not much else. I was aware of who they were, and I was familiar with a smattering of their songs, but they weren’t in the same league as Zeppelin, the Who, and what have you.
Even when Mercury died, this didn’t change right away. It wasn’t until Wayne’s World (the movie, that is), and then the tribute concert, that their popularity exploded. After those two events, Queen was suddenly all over the classic rock stations.
Yeah. I guess you are right about the critics. I was thinking more of commercial success. In high school (74-78), my big 3 were Queen, Rush, and ELP. As I recall, Killer Queen got quite a bit of play on top-40 WLS/WCFL (Chicago). But Bohemian Rhapsody was HUGE. As I recall, a great deal was made about it being the longest tune to get regular airplay, with jokes about DJs starting the track and going out for a leak or a smoke. 
But I was always partial to the likes of Liar and Keep Yourself Alive, which never got much airplay. And the insipid Best Friend and Sombody to Love garnered far more airtime than Tie Your Mother Down (“Take your little brother swimming with a brick, that’s all right!” One of the greatest all time lyrics!)
Then came We Will Rock You and - ugh! - Fat Bottomed Girls, and I ceased to have any reason to listen. Of course, by then I was all in on Elvis, Graham Parker, Ramones, Pretenders, etc.
Funny, when you think of bands that you loved for a few albums, then disliked as they gained popularity. I followed the same path with Rush (last album bought - All The World’s a Stage), Springsteen (River) and Prince (1999).