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Bryan Singer is no stranger to controversy, and on December 1st Fox decided to halt production of the highly anticipated Queen biopic due to the “unexpected unavailability” of director Bryan Singer.
In a direct response from Fox to The Hollywood Reporter, they stated that “Bryan Singer is no longer the director of Bohemian Rhapsody,”
This decision comes after an escalation between Singer and Rami Malek who stars as Freddie Mercury, frontman of the famous rock group Queen. They have been shooting in London, but Singer had been missing from the set since Dec. 1.
“Bryan Singer is no longer the director of Bohemian Rhapsody,”
According to reports, the escalation was so severe that Singer threw an object at Rami Malek, but then they had apparently come to an agreement and tensions had calmed down. .
Allegedly, the trouble began when Singer went missing during the production on several occasions. This meant that his cinematographer Thomas Newton Sigel had to step into the helm some days while Singer was absent.
Rumors from the set also claimed Tom Hollander, who is playing Queen manager Jim Beach briefly quit the film because of Singer’s behavior, but was persuaded to return according to the THR report.
Malek apparently complained to the studio about Singers unreliability and unprofessionalism. Before production took place Fox Film chairman and CEO Snider and Vice Chairman and President of Production Emma Watts told him they would not tolerate unprofessional behavior on his part (which makes us think this is probably a common problem with him) and they even sent a representative from the Directors Guild of America on set to monitor the situation.
It wasn’t until after Thanksgiving when Singer failed to return to set and is believed to have been in the U.S. for the last ten days. Which left Sigel having to step in to continue shooting. It was at this time Fox decided to fire him under his pay-or-play contract.
One source, in the THR article, claims his absence was due to PTSD from tensions on the set. Though, we wonder if perhaps he was being stressed out by other things happening in Hollywood right now. For now, we wait for a new director to be announced so the production can be on its way.
