Bryan Singer directed “Bohemian Rhapsody.” If you're not familiar with the filmmaker's past history of sexual assault allegations then here's a little refresher:
After directing the Oscar-winning hit “The Usual Suspects,” Singer became a hot commodity in Hollywood. However, only a year after winning the statuette, in 1997, a 14-year-old extra accused the director of asking him and other minors to film a shower scene naked for “Apt Pupil.” The suit was dismissed for insufficient evidence."
Since then, rumors have been swirling in Hollywood about Singer, but not many of the supposedly rumored victims have come forward. Did the “Apt Pupil” incident scare people away? It wasn’t enough to scare actor Michael Egan III whom, in April of 2014, accused Singer of sexual assault in an incident that occurred in 1999.Singer had allegedly drugged and raped Egan, who was a minor, in Hawaii and Los Angeles at the time of “Apt Pupil.” Singer denied the accusations, proclaiming them to be “outrageous, vicious, and completely false.” The suit was withdrawn by Egan, but another surfaced from a British man alleging similar behavior around the time of “Superman Returns.” Nonetheless, Singer continued making movies
Now that you've had a refresher course, are you at all surprised that Best Actor winner Rami Malek and the producers who accepted the Best Picture award last night did not even mention Singer once by name? Of course not.
Despite all that, Singer celebrated the surprise win for the Freddy Mercury biopic last night on Instagram, posting a picture from the set of the film. Singer shared a snapshot of him sitting in the director’s chair with Rami Malek in the background. A clear and deliberate attempt to signal to the world "hey, I directed this picture."
There was plenty of drama on the set of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” with rumors pointing to physical altercations between Malek and Singer, not to mention Singer regularly coming late to the set of the shoot or, on some days, not even showing up. Fox eventually fired Singer with Dexter Fletcher brought in to shoot whatever scenes were left in the production of the film.
The man doesn't stop. James Gunn has confirmed he's already hard at work writing his next film, even as ‘Man of Tomorrow’ makes its way toward theaters next summer.