Monday Fox Entertainment broke the news that Bryan Singer, the director known for many movies such as the 'X-Men' movies and 'The Usual Suspects' (1995) had been let go from the Bohemian Rhapsody film, a biopic about legendary music icon Freddie Mercury and the band Queen.
The film starring Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury and Gwilym Lee as Brian May, has had a troubled history already having being stuck in development for a few years. Originally having 'Borat' (Dir. Charles. 2006) star Sacha Baron Cohen set to star as Mercury but pulling out unexpectedly in 2014.
With work on the project dating back to 2008 and numerous talents rumoured to be attached, the film has been stuck until Singer was brought on rather lately in 2016.
Initial reports from Fox stated that the production had been put on hold on Friday due to the unexpected disappearance of the film's director, citing a tension on set stemming from an argument between Singer and main star Rami Malek. Fox also stated that through Singers disappearing act during production, other crew members were forced to step in to pick up on shoots when that was in fact Singers job. Fox also implied that there was a lot of animosity on set towards Singer due to his constant leaving on the production and other members of the crew not knowing what to do.
Singer's Response
Bryan Singer came out with a public response to the controversy and statements from Fox, stating that "Rumours that my unexpected departure from the film was sparked from a dispute I had with Rami Malek are not true", he also added that him and Rami Malek were able to put their differences aside and work on the film regardless of any issues.
Singer then continued to his statement to clarify why he departed suddenly and unexpectedly stating that Fox would not permit him time off from the project to attend to the health of a parent, "I wanted nothing more than to finish this project and help honour the legacy Freddie Mercury and Queen, but Fox would not permit me to do so as I needed to put my health and the health of my loved ones first" Singer said, furthering that the studio was unwilling to allow him the time off and stopping him from working on "a passion project"
With mere weeks before the scheduled end of shooting and no replacement having been announced, we cannot help but wonder how much the movie will suffer. As of writing Fox have made no statement as to the remarks Singer has made against them.
