Move over “Justice League,” there’s a new movie that has production secrets to spill.
Last week, production was halted on the Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” amid reports Bryan Singer had disappeared from the set, and not returned since the film’s Thanksgiving break. Apparently, the filmmaker had been unreliable throughout the production, even leaving some scenes across numerous days to be shot by cinematographer and longtime collaborator Newton Thomas Sigel. However, everything has come to a head and Singer is off the movie entirely.
THR reports that the director has been fired from “Bohemian Rhapsody,” with 20th Century Fox releasing the bluntly worded statement: “Bryan Singer is no longer the director of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’ ” It doesn’t get much more clear cut than that. Even more, Singer’s behavior rattled the cast, with Rami Malek complaining to the studio citing the director’s absence, unreliability and unprofessionalism, and Tom Hollander briefly quitting the film as well. In fact, things got so heated between Singer and Malek, that a confrontation ensued, with the director reportedly “throwing an object” at the star. I’d guess that probably sealed his fate.
The strangest thing about this story is that Singer has developed a reputation for vanishing from movies mid-stream, having apparently done so on “Superman Returns” and “X-Men: Apocalypse.” It’s a bit baffling he kept getting entrusted for these big projects. For his part, Singer is claiming that he’s “suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of the tensions on the set.”
There are two weeks of filming left on “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and a new director is expected to be found, so look out for Christopher Plummer‘s directorial debut.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” is scheduled to open on December 25, 2018.