Prior to his involvement in USA’s excellent Mr. Robot (our review), Rami Malek was often restricted to tertiary roles. From Night at the Museum to The Pacific to Short Term 12, the 36-year-old has no shortage of credits for supporting characters, and even played a small, yet fairly crucial role in Supermassive’s video game sleeper hit, Until Dawn.
That all changes with the release of Bohemian Rhapsody, though, which is poised to place the rising star front and center as the great Freddie Mercury. And though a handful of film fans expressed some concern about his casting, those fears were quickly silenced following the unveiling of the actor as Queen’s former frontman.
Whether it’s the signature white vest and blue jeans ensemble, or the way in which Malek channels Mercury’s flamboyant performances, the attention to detail in the film is uncanny, and Bohemian Rhapsody is now among our most-anticipated releases of 2018. Unfortunately, though, we’re hearing that it may be hit with a delay, as production has been halted by 20th Century Fox.
The official reason is being cited as director Bryan Singer being unavailable, and the studio’s full statement reads as so: “Twentieth Century Fox Film has temporarily halted production on Bohemian Rhapsody due to the unexpected unavailability of Bryan Singer.” Meanwhile, a rep for the director says that his absence is due to a “health matter.”
As always, though, it would seem that there’s more going on than meets the eye here. Sources close to The Hollywood Reporter claim that Singer has been clashing with Malek on set and producers are now feeling nervous about the project, with discussions taking place about possibly replacing the director. That remains unconfirmed for now, but it’s clear that there’s some trouble brewing behind the scenes and we can only hope that it all gets resolved sooner rather than later.
Bohemian Rhapsody is currently penciled in for release on December 25th, 2018, placing it in the same vicinity of James Wan’s Aquaman pic. Whether it’ll hold onto that date remains to be seen, but we’ll let you know as soon as we hear more.