Reality left on the cutting room floor
Ah, the celebrity biopic, part hagiography, and all too often a formulaic and sanitised version of the real thing with little regard for historical accuracy.
Rami Malek as the rock icon Freddie Mercury.
We've seen Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding, Robert Downey Jr as Charlie Chaplin, Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes, Denzel Washington as Malcolm X, Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II, Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and (my personal favourite) Faye Dunnaway as Joan Crawford.
Faye Dunnaway plays Joan Crawford in the hysterically camp film Mommie Dearest.
In Hollywood the "biopic" is currently considered box office gold thanks to the runaway success of Bohemian Rhapsody, which told the story of Freddie Mercury through the eyes of his Queen bandmates.
And in the not too distant future we have Elton John's bare buttocks to look forward too – or do we? More on that later.
But exactly what are we getting in these biopics?
Using the caveat of "dramatic effect", when the subject matter is a little, shall we say, "gritty", all too often such films become vanilla versions of the real thing with little regard for factual accuracy, let alone a bit of spice.
Locally we've seen (some would argue endured) Peter Allen, Paul Hogan, Michael Hutchence, Graham Kennedy, Carlotta, Paul Hogan, Ita Buttrose, Kerry Packer and Olivia Newton John all treated to a television mini series.
Delta Goodrem as Olivia Newton John in Seven’s biopic.
While Allen, Kennedy and Hutchence came out of it fairly well, Hogan and Newton-John not so much.
The harshest of critics argue the only realistic thing about Rami Malek's Academy Award-winning portrayal of Mercury were those enormous false teeth he wore – or rather more accurately, which wore him.
The real Freddie Mercury.
Even before its release Bohemian Rhapsody was criticised for offering a sanitised view of the very out and very gay Mercury, who did more than dabble in party drugs and pleasures of mostly male flesh.
Initially it was Sacha Baron Cohen who was slated to take on Mercury in an earlier version of the project in 2010, but he dropped out three years later, reportedly because the movie would not present the grittier underside of Mercury’s life, like his drugs and sex parties, which by the sounds of things make the ones depicted in Bohemian Rhapsody seem like a Tupperware tea party.
Indeed if such shenanigans were truthfully depicted the film would not have been able to get its PG-13 rating in the huge American movie market. R-Rated films can only ever dream of generating the billion-dollar global box office takings Bohemian Rhapsody has recorded so far.
Last year, well before the film was released, a teaser trailer caused more consternation as it depicted Mercury's "girlfriend" Mary Austin. Critics accused the producers of "straight-washing" Freddie's homosexuality.
But even the PG version of Mercury's life was too much in some corners of the world. Just last week it emerged that more than two minutes of content was cut from the film for Chinese audiences, including scenes of two men kissing and the word "gay."
Now it's Elton John's naked buttocks which could be expunged from reality.
Reports have emerged that the Elton John biopic Rocketman, slated for release in just a couple of months, is at the centre of a dispute between the film's creators and studio bosses at Paramount over a naked sex scene involving Elton (as played by Taron Egerton) and his one time lover and manager John Reid (played by Game of Thrones leading man Richard Madden).
How Elton John celebrated his 50th birthday in 1997, dressed as Louis XVI alongside his partner David Furnish.Credit:AP
Director Dexter Fletcher and producer Matthew Vaughn were apparently told to cut a 40-second scene in the movie that shows Elton and Reid "writhing around in bed".
The scene has supposedly since been watered down to just the men "cuddling".
Heavens knows what the Chinese will make of that one.
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