To say that Bryan Singer is a controversial filmmaker would be to deal in wild understatement.
This is, after all, the man who has been trailed by allegations of rape and sexual assault since the early 90s, during which time he was lauded for The Usual Suspects and several other features. Singer then graduated into Hollywood’s big leagues with X-Men and its rather brilliant sequel, X2, but the accusations were never too far behind.
Case in point:Â The Atlantic recently ran a story about Singer’s alleged victims earlier this month, prompting widespread anger and, frankly, disbelief, given the director fully expects to keep hold of his plum $10 million directing gig on Red Sonja. As a matter of fact, according to The Hollywood Reporter, he currently stands to earn upwards of $40 million from the success of Bohemian Rhapsody, too.
Despite losing his job mid-way through development, at which point Dexter Fletcher was brought in to pick up the reins, Bryan Singer is still the only credited director of Bohemian Rhapsody, and is therefore expected to gain close to $40 million from the Queen biopic following its runaway success – $819 million worldwide, last we reported.
Of course, there’s already been some pushback against Bohemian Rhapsody due to Singer’s involvement; for instance, earlier this week the GLAAD Awards yanked Fox’s Freddie Mercury biopic from its list of Best Picture nominees, where it was originally supposed to compete against Deadpool 2, Blockers, Crazy Rich Asians, The Girl in the Spider’s Web and Greg Berlanti’s warm and fuzzy romance, Love, Simon for top honors.
But against all odds, Bohemian Rhapsody continues to gain serious awards momentum, particularly after it took home the Golden Globe for Best Picture. That just leaves one question: can the Fox film cause an upset on the night of the Oscars? We’ll find out on Sunday, February 24th.
