Brian May has revealed the Queen biopic 'Bohemian Rhapsody' will be released in 2018.

Brian May

Brian May

The band's 69-year-old guitarist has teased that the biopic - which tell the story of the legendary band and their late great frontman Freddie Mercury - is almost finished after being in development for eight years.

Speaking to the Daily Star newspaper, May spilled: "The Freddie film is coming ... sooner than you might think, next year."

It is the first time anyone has revealed when the movie is likely to hit cinemas.

In addition he hinted that Queen could be set to rock the UK again after completing their North America tour with Adam Lambert - who provides vocals in place of Freddie who tragically died in 1991 at the age of 45 due to complications caused by AIDS.

May added: "We will be in America most of the summer and then probably be back around these parts at the end of the year."

The much-anticipated movie has had a difficult journey to the big screen.

Sacha Baron Cohen was originally set to play Freddie but he left the project due to "artistic differences" over the direction of the movie.

The 'Borat' star claimed he quit because the surviving members of Queen - which includes drummer Roger Taylor and former member John Deacon - wanted the movie to show how the band went from "strength to strength" following the singer's death.

Sacha, 45, said: "[Following] my first meeting, I should never have carried on because a member of the band - I won't say who - said, 'This is such a great movie, because such an amazing thing happens in the middle of the movie.'

"I go, 'What happens in the middle of the movie?' He goes, 'Freddie dies.' I go, 'So you mean it's a bit like 'Pulp Fiction', where the end is the middle and the middle is the end? That's interesting.' He goes, 'No, no, no.' So I said, 'Wait a minute. What happens in the second half of the movie?' And he said, 'Well, we see how the band carries on from strength to strength.' And I said, 'Listen, not one person is going to see a movie where the lead character dies from AIDS and then you carry on to see [what happens with Queen].' "

Brian hit back at Sacha's claims, claiming the actor-and-writer became an "a**e".

The 'We Are The Champions' hitmaker said: "Sacha became an a**e. We had some nice times with Sacha kicking around ideas but he went off and told untruths about what happened. Why would he go away and say that we didn't want to make a gritty film? Are we the kind of people who have ever ducked from the truth? I don't think so."

Instead, 'Mr. Robot' star Rami Malek will play the late Queen frontman, while Bryan Singer is the director.

GK Films, New Regency and Fox have teamed up to make the biopic, while 'The Theory of Everything' screenwriter Anthony McCarten penned the script.

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