Rami Malek Almost Appeared In ‘Rocketman’ As Freddie Mercury, Studio Considered PG-13 Rating After ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’s Success
Rocketman, the Elton John musical starringTaron Egerton, nearly established a connected cinematic universe with last year’s Queen biopicBohemian Rhapsody.Rami Malek, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury inBohemian Rhapsody, almost reprised that role for a small cameo inRocketman, a connection the film’s director said “would have been amazing.” And speaking ofBohemian Rhapsody, after that film became one of 2018’s biggest surprise hits, Paramount considered turningRocketmaninto a PG-13 movie to try to copy the earlier movie’s success. They ultimately decided to stick with an R rating, but it wasn’t just the studio that was considering the change – apparently the filmmakers and producers thought about it, too.
Rocketman Cameo
In an interview withGay Star News(viaYahoo UK), director Dexter Fletcher – who directedRocketmanand also came in to replace Bryan Singer as the director ofBohemian Rhapsody– was asked if he thought about adding Rami Malek’s Freddie Mercury toRocketman, and he said yes:
“There was an idea I had one point, where Elton’s in a restaurant with his mother. I thought John Reid and Freddie could be at another table and they wave at each other! That would have been amazing, [but] it didn’t come to pass. It would’ve been a little too knowing…I’m not looking to set out to make a cinematic universe!”
John Reid managed both Elton John and Queen; he was played by Richard Madden inRocketmanand Aiden Gillan inBohemian Rhapsody.
Ultimately, not pursuing this cameo was the correct call. While seeing Malek may have been another almost hallucinatory moment inRocketman, a film that’s already packed with them, that cameo likely would have taken the spotlight away from Elton John’s story and further linked these two films together in history.
Rocketman Rating Conundrum
Meanwhile,Vulturehas a new report aboutRocketman’s development history and revealed thatWyck Godfrey, president of Paramount’s motion picture group, considered altering the rating afterBohemian Rhapsodypulled in $903 million globally:
“We were testing it, going, ‘Okay, is there a tamer version that can play just as well and satisfy audiences?’ Internally, we looked at scenes, and what you would have to lose to make it PG-13. There was certainly a wobble.”
But to hear Godfrey tell it, this wasn’t just some studio note coming down from on high. It sounds like Fletcher and the movie’s producers were also temporarily tempted by the dollar signsRhapsodywas raking in:
“That’s your knee-jerk reaction, of course. You work in a big company and everyone’s like, ‘Look what that’s doing. We should chase that.’ By the way, it was a wobble that took place with the filmmakers and producers as well. But pretty quickly, we came back around to the fact that we committed and believed in this movie before we knew whatBohemian Rhapsodywas going to do. It’s always better to lead than to follow.”
These are fascinating pieces of trivia, and I think it’s safe to say they made the correct call in both instances. WhileRocketmanandBohemian Rhapsodyseem destined to be compared to each other forever, time will allow each of them to stand on their own, and that bond would have been more difficult to break if one of the lead characters from one movie appeared in the other, even briefly.
