The much-maligned and troubled Queen and Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody appears to have finally found itself some stability, after the turmoil surrounding original director Bryan Singer threatened to throw the production completely off the rails.
Singer was unceremoniously fired from the production after several heated confrontations with cast and crew, including a widely publicised one with star Rami Malek over Singer’s repeated unexplained absences from the set, which forced cinematographer Thomas Newton Sigel to fill in as director to cover the days when Singer was absent.
Singer responded to the allegations of unprofessionalism by claiming that he was away caring for an ill relative, but the studio refused to buy that explanation and fired him, with production in London halting with mere weeks remaining in its filming schedule.
That production shutdown will not last much longer, with Twentieth Century Fox tapping British journeyman Dexter Fletcher to finish the flick off.
Fletcher last directed the actually-pretty-great Eddie the Eagle, which followed the real-life story of Olympic ski jumper Eddie Edwards and starred Hugh Jackman and Christopher Walken, among others.
But film fans will more than likely remember Fletcher best as one of the ensemble cast of Guy Ritchie‘s 1998 cult hit Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, where he played Soap, a clean-cut cook with an insanely murderous streak.
Production on the film is expected to resume next week. The studio still has Christmas Day 2018 pencilled in as a release date for the long-awaited biopic.
