Lots of director shifting going on today. Obviously, it’s no different from most days in Tinsel Town, but there are some unusually big names doing the folding chair shuffle. With Steven Spielberg dropping off**Gods And Kings **(and Ang Lee considering jumping on it), word also arrives that Les Miserables** director Tom Hooper may reunite with Sacha Baron Cohen for the planned Freddie Mercury biopic.
The Mercury film has been bubbling away on the development stove for a while now. Cohen was first linked with the project back in 2010, but despite occasional pings on the news radar, nothing much has happened with it.
Peter Morgan’s script will follow Queen’s formative years (insert your own joke here about how Morgan likes writing about the Queen, following the Helen Mirren film and play he's already written) and chart the band’s rise to success, capped by their appearance at 1985’s Live Aid concert. Graham King’s GK Films has nabbed a rights deal that includes access to their most famous tracks, including Bohemian Rhapsody, We Are The Champions, We Will Rock you and Another One Bites The Dust.
Deadline reports that there’s no formal offer in place and Hooper is flirting with several potential projects in the wake of** Les Miserables**. But since he’s got form making the man formerly known as Borat and Bruno sing, this could happen. However, it’ll stay in the rumour folder until there’s actual news to report.
In the same story, Deadline mentions that David Fincher is currently considering Gone Girl as his next possible movie, though he also has 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea at the forefront of his mind at the moment. He’s been developing them both, and apparently lots of actresses are trying to get the Gone Girl role.