Katy Perry tipped to play Freddie Mercury’s girlfriend in new flick

London: Singer Katy Perry is hoping to land the role of Freddie Mercury’s girlfriend Mary Austin in a new film about the late Queen singer’s life. Sacha Baron Cohen will be playing the role of Mercury in the movie. The 27-year-old singer, who wants to make the switch from music to big screen, hopes that the biopic of her rock idol will be her big break. Perry is such a big fan that she dressed as Mercury at her own birthday party. Filming is due to start next year and Cohen is already working with remaining Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor on the movie, which is being tipped as a box-office hit. “Katy would love to be in the film as she is such a huge fan. She would want to play Mary Austin ideally. Katy has a similar look to Mary and would be a brilliant foil to Sacha,” a leading daily has quoted a friend of Perry as saying. The film is being produced by Oscar-winning Graham King, best known for his film The Departed, and the producers have secured rights to many of Queen’s biggest hits, including ‘We Will Rock You’,’ Bohemian Rhapsody’ and ‘We Are The Champions.’ Stephen Frears, who directed Oscar-winning ‘The Queen,’ starring Helen Mirren, is tipped to direct the movie. It will focus on late singer’s rise to fame from the band’s formation in 1971 to their ­monumental performance at ‘Live Aid’ in 1985. Mercury began dating Austin in the early 1970s before he became famous, and the couple enjoyed a six-year relationship as Queen hit the big time. Mercury later admitted to Austin that he was bisexual and they went their separate ways. The singer had relationships with several male partners but always remained close to the woman he called his “common-law” wife. She was one of the first people he ­told when he was diagnosed as HIV-positive, and she comforted him ­during Mercury’s final days before he died of Aids-related pneumonia in 1991 at the age of just 45. “All my lovers asked me why they couldn’t replace Mary, but it’s simply impossible,” Mercury had said. In his will he left 61-year-old Austin his home in London. ANI