Bryan Jay Singer (born September 16, 1965)[1] is an American filmmaker. He is the founder of Bad Hat Harry Productions and has produced almost all of the films he has directed.
After graduating from the University of Southern California, Singer directed his first short film, Lion's Den (1988). On the basis of that film, he received financing for his next film, Public Access (1993), which was a co-winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival. In the mid-1990s, Singer received critical acclaim for directing the neo-noir crime thriller The Usual Suspects (1995). He followed this with another thriller, Apt Pupil (1998), an adaptation of a Stephen King novella about a boy's fascination with a Nazi war criminal.
Singer was born in 1965 or 1966[2] and was adopted by Grace Sinden, an environmental activist, and Norbert Dave Singer, a corporate executive.[3] He grew up in a Jewish household in West Windsor Township, New Jersey. In his early teens, he started making 8mm films as well as experimenting with photography.[4] He attended West Windsor-Plainsboro High School (now renamed West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South), graduating in 1984.[5][6] He studied filmmaking for two years at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and later transferred to the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles where he followed the Critical studies program.[7]
Career
1980s–1990s
Singer directed a short film in 1988 called Lion's Den involving a number of friends, including actor Ethan Hawke, whom he knew from his childhood in New Jersey, and editor John Ottman, whom he had met while working on a friend's short film.[8][9] After a screening of Lion's Den, Singer was approached by someone from Tokuma Japan Productions, a Japanese company interested in funding a series of low-budget films.[10] Singer pitched a concept that eventually became the film Public Access (1993). Ottman again served as editor but this time also composed the score for the film. At the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, the film was named as co-winner of the Grand Jury Prize with Ruby in Paradise.[11]
In the early 2000s, Singer was hoping to direct Confessions of a Dangerous Mind based on the Chuck Barris book of the same name.[13] The film was later directed by George Clooney for Miramax Films with Sam Rockwell in the lead role. In February 2001, Singer was attempting to produce a new Battlestar Galactica television series for Studios USA (now NBC Universal Television Studio). Speaking to BBC News, Singer said he was "confident that the Galactica brand is a sleeping giant. It was a show I watched during its initial run, from the pilot to the final episode. The essence and the brand name is quite potent in a climate where there's a great deficit of sci-fi programming."[14] Singer eventually left the project, which was produced by another team on the Sci Fi Channel.
Singer directed the superhero films X-Men (2000) and X2 (2003), which were commercial successes. In mid-2004, Singer was in negotiations to direct X-Men: The Last Stand for 20th Century Fox when he agreed to direct Superman Returns for Warner Bros. Pictures. In consequence, 20th Century Fox terminated its production deal with Bad Hat Harry Productions, Singer's production company.[15]
Superman Returns was filmed in Australia in 2005, and was released on June 28, 2006. Singer claimed that he had always admired and identified with the character, citing the fact that he and Superman are both orphans, noting that he was inspired by the 1978 film starring Christopher Reeve and the comics of Alex Ross.[16]
In August 2009, Universal Pictures announced that Singer would direct and produce a big screen reimagining of the Battlestar Galacticatelevision series of the late-1970s, which would not draw any material from the Syfy Channel reimagined series.[17] On September 10, 2009, it was announced NBC has partnered with Singer and Bryan Fuller to adapt Augusten Burroughs's Sellevision into a series about a fictional home shopping network, according to The Hollywood Reporter.[18] Neither project was ultimately produced.
In 2015, Singer, Bad Hat Harry Productions, and Same Name Productions started to collaborate on a documentary project with Guy Shalem. The documentary was set to explore the Israeli–Palestinian conflict through the vantage point of a dynamic Arab-Israeli activist.[33] In 2016, Fox announced that Singer would direct its version of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, after having been asked to participate on the elaboration of the movie's script.[34]
In November 2016, it was announced that Singer would direct the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.[35] He produced the film with Jim Beach and Graham King.[36] On December 1, 2017, The Hollywood Reporter reported that 20th Century Fox had temporarily halted production due to the "unexpected unavailability" of Singer, with sources saying that he had failed to return to the set after the Thanksgiving week. Producers were nervous about the state of production and started discussions about potentially replacing him, at which point cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel may have stepped in to direct during Singer's absence.[37] Singer's absence was reportedly due to "a personal health matter concerning [him] and his family", and Singer's representatives stated that he was visiting his ill mother.[38] However, other sources stated that the film's lead actor Rami Malek and the crew had grown tired of Singer's behavior; Singer had reportedly shown up late to set on multiple occasions, and had repeatedly clashed with Malek.[39] On December 4, 2017, Singer was fired as a director with about two weeks remaining in principal photography.[40] Singer's replacement Dexter Fletcher is quoted saying he came in and "just finished it up, really."[41] 20th Century Fox terminated his Bad Hat Harry Productions deal with the studio. Singer still received directorial credit for Bohemian Rhapsody due to a Directors Guild of America ruling that only a sole director can receive credit.[42]
At the end of January 2017, Singer signed on to direct an action adventure pilot in the X-Men Universe entitled The Gifted. The show was broadcast on Fox and canceled after two seasons.[43]
2020s
In June 2023 Variety reported that Singer was producing and self-financing a documentary in which he would address the accusations of sexual abuse made against him.[44][45]
Personal life
Singer is bisexual,[46] and has said that growing up in a Jewish household as a sexual minority influenced his movies.[47] He and actress Michelle Clunie have a son who was born in January 2015.[48]
In 1997, a 14-year-old extra accused Singer of asking him and other minors to film a shower scene nude for the film Apt Pupil.[52] Two other adolescent boys, 16 and 17 years old, later supported the 14-year-old's claim. The boys claimed trauma from the experience and filed a civil suit against the filmmakers alleging infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and invasion of privacy,[53] and alleged that they were filmed for sexual gratification.[54] While some sources state that the civil case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence,[55][56][57] others indicate that it was settled out of court.[58][59][60] The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office declined to press criminal charges.[60]
2014 lawsuits and allegations
In April 2014, Singer was accused in a civil lawsuit of sexual assault of a minor. According to the suit filed by attorney Jeff Herman, Singer is alleged to have drugged and raped actor and model Michael Egan III in Hawaii, after initially meeting him at parties hosted by convicted sex offenderMarc Collins-Rector in the late 1990s.[61] Singer's attorney called the allegations "completely fabricated" and said Singer planned to countersue.[62] Singer denied the allegations in a statement, calling them "outrageous, vicious, and completely false".[63] On May 22, 2014, Singer's attorney presented evidence to Federal District JudgeSusan Oki Mollway stating that neither Singer nor Egan was in Hawaii at the time.[64] In early August 2014, Egan sought to withdraw his lawsuit via a Request for Court Order of Dismissal, and asked that it be granted "without prejudice or an award of costs or fees, in the interest of justice."[65]
In May 2014, another lawsuit was filed by attorney Jeff Herman on behalf of an anonymous British man. Both Singer and producer Gary Goddard (who was also named separately in the first case) were accused of sexually assaulting "John Doe No. 117".[66] According to the lawsuit, Goddard and Singer met the man for sex when he was a minor and engaged in acts of "gender violence" against him while in London for the premiere of Superman Returns.[67] The charge against Singer in this case was dismissed, at the accuser's request, in July 2014.[68]
Singer was cited in the 2014 documentary film on child sexual abuse in Hollywood, An Open Secret, but details of Egan's allegations were omitted after Egan withdrew his lawsuit during the film's production.[69][70] Author Bret Easton Ellis alleged that two of his former partners had attended underage sex parties hosted by Singer and fellow director Roland Emmerich.[71]
2017 lawsuit
On December 7, 2017, Cesar Sanchez-Guzman filed a lawsuit in Washington against Singer, alleging that he had been raped at age 17 by the director in 2003.[72] Singer denied the allegations and removed himself from the public eye.[73] After the lawsuit was announced, the USC School of Cinematic Arts removed Singer's name from its Division of Cinema & Media Studies program,[74] an action which had previously been petitioned for by students at the school due to the many allegations against him.[75]
In June 2019, Sanchez-Guzman's bankruptcy trustee Nancy James recommended that a $150,000 settlement be approved, citing the absence of evidence that Singer attended the yacht party where the alleged assault took place. Singer's attorney Andrew Brettler said that Singer has maintained his innocence and that the "decision to resolve the matter with the bankruptcy trustee was purely a business one". Much of the settlement would go towards paying creditors and the administrators of the case, with the remainder allocated to Sanchez-Guzman.[76]
On January 23, 2019, Alex French and Maximillian Potter published an investigative report in The Atlantic in which four more men alleged that Singer sexually assaulted them when they were underage.[77][78][79] The article also claimed that Sanchez-Guzman's 2017 lawsuit was stalled when Singer's legal team reported Sanchez-Guzman to the Internal Revenue Service and to US immigration officials, although this was disputed by one of Singer's lawyers.[77][80] In response to the men's allegations, Singer denied any association with them and described the journalists as "homophobic".[77][81][82]
On February 11, Millennium Films stated that Red Sonja, a film that Singer had been attached to as director, was no longer on their slate of films; the company's founder, Avi Lerner, had previously defended hiring Singer in spite of the allegations.[90]
^Miller, Lynn (January 25, 2008). "More West Windsor Filmmaking Stars on the Horizon". West Windsor & Plainsboro News. Archived from the original on January 25, 2008. Two West Windsor-Plainsboro High School graduates are following in the footsteps of two other filmmakers from West Windsor, Bryan Singer and Christopher McQuarrie. Singer, Class of 1984, and McQuarrie, Class of 1986, have recently joined together for the filming of "Valkyrie", a controversial film about Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, the German Army officer who tried to do away with Hitler during World War II.
^Weinraub, Bernard (July 9, 2000). "Film; An Unusual Choice for the Role of Studio Superhero". The New York Times. Retrieved November 27, 2007. As a child, Mr. Singer grew up in Princeton Junction, N.J. His father, Norbert Singer, is a businessman and his mother, Grace, is an environmental activist and former state environmental official. Mr. Singer attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan for two years, and then transferred to the University of Southern California.
^Mottram, James (May 2007). "Genre II: School Days;– Election, Rushmore, and Apt Pupil". The Sundance Kids: How the Mavericks Took Back Hollywood. Faber & Faber. pp. 203–244. ISBN978-0-86547-967-8. p. 223
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