When it was first announced that 20th Century Fox was directing a biographical movie about the classic rock band Queen, many people were worried. Indeed, cinephiles and Queen fans were equally anxious that the biopic would fall short of capturing the essential essence of what made the band so great.
However, the casting of Emmy-award-winning Mr Robot actor Rami Malek managed to quell the fears of most folks. Although the film has had something of a mixed critical reception, everyone has praised Malek's portrayal of Mercury as being eerily accurate and pitch-perfect - even getting the performances bang-on.
The film naturally climaxes with Queen's legendary performance at Live Aid, (which many people believe is one of the greatest live performance in rock music history) and instead of covering the event with a montage or some samples, it was decided that the best way to do the concert justice was to recreate the entire thing. Incredibly, Rami Malek did his best to perfectly copy every gesture, head movement and step for the final scene, and revealed that he actually performed the full six-song set on camera. Although not every minute made it to the final cut, there's a complete version of the entire performance which will be featured as a DVD extra when it's released.
Discussing the ins and outs of the movie in a recent interview with an Australian entertainment news site, Malek stated: "That's something we tried to get move-for-move, even just gesture for gesture perfectly. It felt like I had it in my bones and I didn't want to keep going back to it. It felt like sometimes you would lose a little bit of the authenticity if you tried to nail it so perfectly. Things won't exactly always match up, there might be a hint of something that's off, but I think that kept it feeling really alive and in the moment and it was better to sacrifice it that way, but yeah, I was watching it non-stop."
Despite the movie's positive reception among audiences, the film has suffered from something of a troubled production. Director Bryan Singer was repeatedly absences during the shoot, so much so that Malek was actually forced to complain to Fox studio heads. Executives then visited the set to monitor Singer's behaviour; which still didn't prevent him from disappearing after Thanksgiving break. After a ten-day-long absence straight, Singer was fired from the shoot and replaced with Dexter Fletcher (the man who was originally set to direct in the first place) for the remainder of production.
It's amazing that the late, great Freddy Mercury has finally been given the magnificent movie tribute that he always deserved, and the rest of the band have also expressed their full support for the project. Personally, I can't wait to catch this in the movie theatre. I have a feeling that I'm going to absolutely love it.