Sacha Baron Cohen walks from Freddie Mercury biopic after fall out with Queen

Deadline is reporting that Sacha Baron Cohen is walking away from the highly anticipated Freddie Mercury biopic because of disagreements with the late singer’s band, Queen.

The film has been in development for three years and Cohen has been instrumental in recruiting heavyweights David Fincher and Tom Hooper to produce a script worthy of the legendary and larger-than-life singer. The surviving members of Queen have script and director approval over the work and have had “creative differences” with Cohen on what the focus of the film should be.

The band is looking to make more of a PG-rated version focused on the group as a whole while Cohen wanted to make a more gritty R-rated piece centered around Mercury.

In spite of what seems like a critical blow to the making of the film, it is set to move forward with an as-yet-named actor to take the place of Cohen as Mercury.