Leaked set video from Bohemian Rhapsody shows Rami Malek partially recreating Freddie Mercury's performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody" from Queen's legendary Live Aid appearance in 1985. Director Bryan Singer has been amping up the anticipation for the long-gestating Queen biopic in the last couple of months, including the announcement in July that Mr. Robot star Malek would play the lead role of the band's iconic singer/songwriter/musician, Freddie Mercury, followed by a stunning first look photo earlier this month of Malek in the guise of Mercury as he appeared in Live Aid.
Filming is already underway for Bohemian Rhapsody, and a recently leaked set video by The Sun on Sunday (via A Queen Of Magic) shows the recreation of Queen's Live Aid performance from 1985 in Wembley Stadium in London. In addition to the recreation of the performance, the video shows a wide shot of the Live Aid stage recreated for the film.
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The video, which runs 1 minute and 32 seconds, shows only Malek's Mercury performing the beginning of "Bohemian Rhapsody," along with Joe Mazzello, who plays Queen bassist John Deacon, standing idly by. In all likelihood Singer was just filming closeup shots of Mercury and Deacon, which explains why actors Gwilym Lee (who plays guitarist Brian May) and Ben Hardy (drummer Roger Taylor) weren't present on stage.
In comparison to video of Queen's actual Live Aid appearance, Singer appears to be going to great lengths to painstakingly recreate the performance. The set video shows Malek perfectly mimicking Mercury's energetic mannerisms when he makes his entrance, and the actor even has down the moment Mercury adjusts a knob of a tuner that's sitting atop his baby grand piano on stage.
As for the performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody," at this point it appears that the actual audio track of Mercury's vocals and piano playing from Live Aid were used for the shot. Whether it was just a temp track to guide Malek and the faux members of Queen during the shot is yet to be seen, because Malek said in an interview earlier this month that the film will feature his own voice, recordings of singer, and fill-ins of soundalikes.
No matter the case, this first behind-the-scenes look at Bohemian Rhapsody is bound to give fans goosebumps because of its authenticity. The exciting thing is this is only one look at Queen over an amazing 15-year period (from 1970 to 1985), so there's bound to be a lot more thrilling footage to come as fans patiently await the release of the film.
NEXT: Bohemian Rhapsody Casts the Other Members of Queen
Source: The Sun on Sunday (via A Queen of Magic)
