Bryan Singer Disappears From Queen Biopic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Because Not Enough Teenage Boys

Bad news if you were looking forward to that Bryan Singer directed Queen movie Bohemian Rhapsody; Singer has been fired by Fox with less than three weeks of filming left before production wrapped. But there are conflicting stories on why Singer was fired from the film and why his production company is today packing up its office on the Fox lot because of it.

Deadline covered the entire timeline of events as they were unfolding, and it’s kind of a wild turn of events. Production temporarily halted on Friday, with Fox saying Singer was unavailable. Singer released a statement through his people that it was because of a health issue, though there was speculation that the studio was looking to replace Singer.

That seems reasonable enough, but then the speculation started after Singer was officially fired from the project. The Hollywood Reporter painted a picture of a fraught shoot in which tensions between Singer and star Rami Malek were so high that Singer was throwing things at Malek, who was angry about Singer’s repeated absences from set during shooting. Singer has since said that while he and Malek had problems, they had settled their disagreements.

Of course, that wasn’t the only source of speculation. A few years ago, securities fraudster Michael Egan III accused Bryan Singer of sexually assaulting him when he was 17 and sued him, in a lawsuit that was eventually dropped, one that just happened to be a carbon copy of a lawsuit Egan had settled years earlier with three men who were not Singer. He was also sued in 1997 by a teenaged extra in Apt Pupil over a nude shower scene, but that lawsuit was also dismissed.

Of course, we don’t know what else might come out about Singer. Egan’s attorneys said he was lying, and Egan is a convicted conman, but that doesn’t mean Singer hasn’t done anything wrong. Singer has long been followed by rumors of inappropriate sexual behavior, but they don’t seem to have played a role in Fox’s firing him at the present time. That was probably, as everyone involved has said, the result of Singer not showing up to set since production paused for Thanksgiving because he says he was with his mother, who is ill. Maybe he was. But Singer has a history of being unreliable and not showing up to set, which is pretty important if you’re a director.