Controversy has once again rocked Bohemian Rhapsody filmmaker Bryan Singer.
The 53-year-old filmmaker, whose Queen biopic is up for multiple Academy Awards—including Best Picture—has been plagued by allegations of sexual abuse for years, most recently in a detailed report in The Atlantic. Now, his latest project, a big-budget adaptation of the long-running comic book Red Sonja, has been put on hold, according to Deadline.
Singer, whose filmography includes such hits as X-Men: Days of Future Past, stood to earn a reported $10 million for directing Red Sonja. Yet word of his hiring on the long-in-the-works film surprised many in the industry. Despite Singer’s box-office success with Bohemian Rhapsody, which has earned close to $1 billion worldwide, the film was plagued with on-set problems, forcing studio 20th Century Fox to replace the filmmaker weeks before shooting ended.
Oscar nominee Rami Malek, who stars in the film as the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, recently said that his on-set experience with Singer “was not pleasant.”
Singer’s directing credit remained intact on Rhapsody, though the popular film didn’t yield Singer a Best Director nomination. Earlier this month, Singer’s name was dropped from Bohemian Rhapsody‘s numerous nominations by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, or BAFTAS.
