On October 31, 2018 is released in French theaters: “Bohemian Rhapsody”. A biopic centered on the group Queen and its leader Freddie Mercury, directed by Bryan Singer. But did you know that the latter was fired from the project before the end of filming?
Bohemian rhapsody : huge box office success
In 2018, Bryan Singer decides to drop the franchise X-Men to focus on another project centered on the Queen group. Entitled Bohemian rhapsody, the film is a biopic on this iconic rock band and its frontman Freddie Mercury. For the occasion, it is Rami Malek who was chosen to play the famous singer, with the beard of an actor like Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Whishaw, Dominic Cooper or Daniel Radcliffe. The rest of the cast includes Gwilym Lee as Brian May, Lucy Boynton as Mary Austin or Ben Hardy as Roger Taylor.
Despite mixed critical feedback, with some pointing to the biopic’s lack of veracity, Bohemian rhapsody was a huge hit for 20th Century Fox. Indeed, the feature film was nominated 5 times at the Oscars. He even left with the statuettes of the Best Actor for Rami Malek, for Best Editing, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing. On the box office side, the work generated more than 911 million dollars in revenue for a budget of 52 million.
Bryan Singer fired from his movie
If it is the filmmaker Bryan Singer who is credited as the director of the film, However, he was fired by Fox before the end of filming. Dexter Fletcher, the director of Rocketman, was called to complete the shooting of Bohemian rhapsody. Dexter Fletcher was initially Fox’s top pick, but the filmmaker had run into artistic disputes with producer Graham King.
As relayed by Collider, Bryan Singer would have been dismissed following his repetitive absences. Rami Malek would have complained about the too regular absences of the filmmaker, his lack of seriousness and professionalism. The Fox decided to part ways with Bryan Singer when the latter was away for too long. Which necessitated the interruption of filming. The studio therefore decided to replace Bryan Singer with Dexter Fletcher. In a press release, Singer denied his lack of professionalism. In particular, he put forward health problems to justify his frequent departures:
I wanted nothing more than to finish this project and honor the legacy of Freddie Mercury and Queen. But Fox did not allow me to do this because I needed to temporarily prioritize my health. As well as that of my relatives. Rumors that my unexpected departure was due to an argument with Rami Malek are false. Although at times we had creative differences on set, he and I managed to put them behind us. We continued to make the film together until Thanksgiving.
Always after Collider, the filmmaker would then have put forward a post-traumatic stress because of the strong tensions that he met on the set of Bohemian rhapsody.
For his part, Rami Malek evoked an atmosphere on the set which was not pleasant “at all”.
