Fox has severed all ties with Bryan Singer because the drama isn’t easy come, easy go

This just in: Bryan Singer was already out of a job. Now, it seems, he’s out of an office, too. News broke yesterday that the director had been officially booted from Bohemian Rhapsody, a biopic about Queen frontman Freddie Mercury — and now, we’re learning Fox has cut all ties with Bryan Singer, shutting down his offices on the Twentieth Century Fox lot. Ouch.

The shake-up comes after what sounds like a lot of drama on the Rhapsody set, including some serious tension between Bryan Singer and star Rami Malek.

Apparently, Malek wasn’t having Singer’s reported unprofessionalism and absences from the set in recent weeks. The details are a little fuzzy, but Singer was apparently warned to keep it together by Fox bigwigs. Even though things had been heated between Malek and the director, production was set to resume after the Thanksgiving break — only sources are saying Singer never came back.

The project was effectively put on hold with only about two weeks of shooting left on the schedule, and Fox went on to announce the director would no longer be involved. Singer denies it was his rocky relationship with Malek that caused his termination. Instead, he said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, it was his health and the health of his loved ones that sparked the issue:

"I wanted nothing more than to be able to finish this project and help honor the legacy of Freddie Mercury and Queen, but Fox would not permit me to do so because I needed to temporarily put my health, and the health of my loved ones, first."

He added, "Rumors that my unexpected departure from the film was sparked by a dispute I had with Rami Malek are not true. While, at times, we did have creative differences on set, Rami and I successfully put those differences behind us and continued to work on the film together until just prior to Thanksgiving."

Bad Hat Harry, Singer’s production company, was actually supposed to be out of the Fox lot offices back in October when Singer’s three-year first-look deal with the studio was up. But the director, who’s worked with the studio before on numerous projects like X-Men: Apocalypse and The Gifted, was able to get an extension to stay there throughout the remainder of the Bohemian Rhapsody shoot.

Now that Singer’s role in the project is over, so are the offices. A replacement director to finish the film is expected to be announced in the next few days.