Last Friday, we reported that director Bryan Singer had halted production on his Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody over a “personal health matter,” though by Monday we discovered that Singer had actually been fired by 20th Century Fox after he repeatedly failed to appear on set and had supposedly clashed with star Rami Malek. Later, Singer released a statement and explained that he was taking care of a sick parent and that the studio had refused to give him time off that he had requested.
Whatever was really happening, 20th Century Fox has now found a replacement for Singer in Dexter Fletcher, the director of Eddie The Eagle. That movie was more of a feel-good, family-friendly story than what you’d expect from a Freddie Mercury movie, but production on Bohemian Rhapsody seems like it was pretty far along already when Singer got fired so there might only be so much any director could do. At the very least, Fletcher will most likely make sure to show up when he’s supposed to, which is probably the most important thing to 20th Century Fox now.