Queen's final filmed concert with Freddie Mercury is heading to the big screen. Queen Budapest, a concert film built from the band's July 27, 1986 performance at Budapest's Népstadion, will open Oct. 7 across more than 2,000 cinemas, including some IMAX screens, with full ticketing details available on a bespoke website.
That night's show reportedly drew 80,000 ticketholders inside the stadium, with an estimated 45,000 more fans listening from outside. The concert was shot on 35mm by what the producers describe as "Hungary's best cameramen," and the footage has since been restored to 4K quality using equipment at Peter Jackson's Park Road Post Production facility in New Zealand. The soundtrack has also been remixed and will be released on CD and a triple-LP, alongside Blu-ray and DVD editions of the film arriving Oct. 30.
The film's trailer opens with Mercury alone onstage delivering one of his signature "Aaayyoo" calls before cutting to the band performing "We Will Rock You." It also shows Mercury in a crown and cape — shirtless, as ever — with snippets of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Are the Champions," plus glimpses of bassist John Deacon smoking, guitarist Brian May crouching with his guitar, audience members waving sparklers, and roughly half a dozen partly-consumed beers sitting atop Mercury's piano. In one scene, Mercury tells the crowd, "This is a night we're never gonna forget."
Screenings will also include a new interview with May and drummer Roger Taylor reflecting on the concert. The band's set that evening ran 25 songs deep, including "Under Pressure," "Another One Bites the Dust," "I Want to Break Free," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Radio Ga Ga," along with an acoustic rendition of the Hungarian folk song "Tavaszi Szél Vizet Áraszt."
The Budapest date came just weeks before Queen wrapped their Magic Tour with a concert on Aug. 9, 1986, in the U.K. — the last time Mercury would perform live with the band before his death in 1991.
Photo: Carl Lender, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
