Director Bryan Singer has been fired from the forthcoming Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, THR reports. Twentieth Century Fox confirmed that he is “no longer the director.” Production on the film was halted late last week “due to the unexpected unavailability” of Singer. He and star Rami Malek—who stars as Freddie Mercury—had reportedly been clashing on set. Singer reportedly threw an object during a confrontation with Malek, though the two allegedly settled their differences in an effort to continue working on the film. Singer was reportedly absent during production on multiple occasions. It was originally announced that the film would hit theaters in December 2018. A new director is expected to be named in the next few days.
Singer has since released a statement about his firing from the film. “I wanted nothing more than to be able to finish this project and help honor the legacy of Freddie Mercury and Queen, but Fox would not permit me to do so because I needed to temporarily put my health, and the health of my loved ones, first,” he said.
Singer also claimed that his dispute with Malek did not spark his firing. “While, at times, we did have creative differences on set, Rami and I successfully put those differences behind us and continued to work on the film together until just prior to Thanksgiving.”
The film has been through quite a few setbacks since its inception. Sacha Baron Cohen was originally cast to portray Mercury in 2010, but he later left the project over creative differences with Queen. Brian May later gave his account of the fallout. The film has been in production for nearly a decade.
