It has been well publicised that later this year, October 24th to be precise, 20thCentury Fox are releasing a ground breaking new film, depicting the life of the late music legend, Freddie Mercury.
The film will be an accurate biopic of Mercury’s life and career, ranging from the huge highs to the devastating lows.
The film was originally announced in 2010 by Brian May, but has undergone a series of problems that have halted the process significantly. The film began production in 2011, with Sacha Baron Cohen initially cast as Freddie Mercury. This was a highly questionable casting, as Baron Cohen is so well known for his comedic and often controversial roles in film. However after 2 years, Baron Cohen walked from the project in July 2013, due to ‘creative differences’. Brian May insisted things were left on good terms, but after 2 years of work, they were back to square one.
Enter Ben Whishaw. The British actor was fresh off his role of ‘Q’ in the James Bond film ‘Spectre’ and seemed an ideal choice. However, after 7 months, Whishaw walked away from the project, stating that the film was not progressing well and there was problems with the scripting. Director Dexter Fletcher also removed himself from the project during this time. Things seemed to be going from bad to worse for the movie.
However, skip forward a couple of years and it was announced to the public that Rami Malek would be playing the role of Freddie, and it seems 3 was the magic number, as this was the one that stuck. Malek reportedly had to spend hours in extremely intense movement sessions, perfecting the moves Freddie created onstage, as well as learning to talk whilst wearing huge prosthetic teeth.
The big question that remained though…was Malek going to sing? Were they going to use Freddie’s vocals?
Step forward, Marc Martel. Marc Martel is a Canadian rock singer, who in 2011, auditioned for a competition where the winner got to embark on a ‘Queen Extravaganza’ tour with Queen drummer, Roger Taylor. Martel released his audition tape of ‘Somebody to Love’ and it went instantly viral. People could not believe the likeness to Freddie Mercury. This led to an appearance on the Ellen show, and subsequently victory in the competition and the tour with Roger Taylor.
Since then, Martel has toured the US and will soon be touring Australia and New Zealand as a Freddie Mercury impersonator. So good is Martel’s voice, that he was asked to contribute to the vocal aspects of the film alongside real recordings of Freddie himself.
This great news for the tribute world as it shows a big step forward in tribute acts not just been looked at as cheap impersonators, or not good enough in their own rights. It takes years of had work and studying to become a high quality act and one’s like Martel have to be viewed seriously with a talent like that.
Here at Tribute Acts Management we are HUGE Queen fans and we can’t wait to see this movie, ad we so happy that a tribute act is being recognised in a professional standing! We have an extremely wide range of Queen and Freddie Mercury tribute acts available on our website, and if you need a live Queen fix, you can check out all their pricing and booking information HERE!
