Crazy Details on Bryan Singer's X-MEN Film: Drugs, Tantrums, Writer's Feud, Sex Scandals, and the Cast Threatened to Quit

After learning the details regarding Bryan Singer’s on-set behavior while directing the first X-Men movie, it’s crazy that studios kept hiring him to make movies! It seems like the guy was a complete nightmare to work with! The allegations against Singer make Josh Trank look like a saint.

THR recently posted an article that dives into the insane madness of it all! The article explains that “crises raged” and that there was drug use, tantrums, and a writers' feud. On top of that one of the film's actors filed a civil suit after production wrapped, “claiming that he was raped by three of Singer's friends and business associates.” Then there was a moment during shooting when the cast of the film threatened to quit. All the while, Fox had Singer’s back. He didn’t face any consequences, and as one producer said, “it created a monster.”

Producer Lauren Shuler Donner said:

It's a weird business, the film business. We honor creativity and talent and we forgive the brilliant ones. Unconsciously, we probably do enable them by turning a blind eye to whatever they're doing and taking their product and putting it out to the world.

Another unnamed studio executive added:

"His behavior was poor on the movie. We accommodated him on the first movie, and therefore we can accommodate him on the second movie. And on and on. And it created a monster.”

Now, let’s dive into the insanity of what happened.

When it comes to the writers working on the film, Christopher McQuarrie, Tom DeSanto, Ed Solomon, and Joss Whedon all worked on the script. In the end, David Hayter received full credit. It’s explained that “despite a lineup of A-list writers, David Hayter, who served as Singer's assistant and was answering phones in the production offices for $500 a week, received sole credit.”

The report says that Singer “began to rely on Hayter for his comic book knowledge, and eventually, had him writing new scenes.” Hayter himself said:

“[Singer] started taking me to script meetings with Peter Rice and Tom Rothman, and he would say, ‘Just sit there, take notes, don't say anything and don't tell anyone you are writing the script.’ Ralph Winter knew and he asked me to highlight everything I'd done in the script at that point, and it was about 55 percent of the script. Ralph went to Peter Rice and said, ‘Look, here's the deal. David, the phone guy, has been writing the script. You have to make a deal with him or we are in serious legal jeopardy. Peter called me into his office and offered me $35,000 and said, 'That's all you'll ever get. Be happy with that.’”

Insiders who were working on the project went on to say that Solomon and McQuarrie wrote the majority of what wound up in the film, with contributions from Hayter. Only two of Whedon’s lines made it into the film. Sources say, “McQuarrie was so angry at the studio for the tortuous process that he persuaded Solomon to remove his name, along with his own, from the film.” Solomon said:

"At the time, I no longer wanted my name on a movie if it wasn't entirely my work. It came more out of immature self-righteousness than anything else, and, in hindsight, it was a stupid move."

Hayter went on to explain that McQuarrie gave up at least $1 million in the first year in residuals and credit bonuses. Same with Ed. “It's unheard-of." Obviously, they were so pissed they didn’t care.

The story meetings that were taking place were incredibly unprofessional. Singer was bringing people into these meetings who weren’t even involved with the movies. A source explains that they were young guys, and that it was a different person every time.

When it came to casting, many of the smaller roles were given to “handsome young men.” It was pointed out that a number of young men, “including some who were minors at the time, have claimed in published interviews that Singer dangled X-Men auditions and roles in exchange for sex.” One of the actors cast that insider’s say should have “prompted a red flag” was the casting of 18-year-old Alex Burton in the role of Pyro.

No one remembers how Burton ended up in the film as he didn’t have any previous acting credits. One source says Burton told him, "Marc [Collins-Rector] and Bryan [Singer] created that role for me." Another source says Burton “was flown up to the Toronto set from Los Angeles, an unheard-of move given the size of his role (studios typically cast locals for talent with one or no lines).”

Not long after the movie premiered, Burton filed a civil suit against three of Singer's friends and business associates in the Digital Entertainment Network venture, a youth-skewing multimedia dot-com and precursor to YouTube “claiming that he had been plied with drugs, sexually assaulted by the trio at the DEN outpost in Encino, held against his will and threatened with physical harm between July 1999 and May 2000, a period that encompasses X-Men's six-month production.” The suit, which did not name Singer, also declares that Collins-Rector "threatened to use his power and influence in the entertainment industry to prevent Burton from gaining employment in the field of entertainment."

Several other people from the set of the production talked about Singer’s drug use. While the filmmaker claims that he was taking pain medication for a bad back, others are saying that his drug use was problematic, “leading to late arrivals to the set, mood swings, and explosive tantrums.”

The report points out that Rebecca Romijn was required to go through hours of body painting and makeup before filming. After going through all that to shoot her scenes, Singer would all of a sudden decide not to use her in a scene and it was all for nothing. Marvel President Kevin Feige, who was at the time a young executive working for Shuler Donner, was sent to the set to help keep Singer in line.

Things got so bad during production that the whole main cast, except for Ian McKellen and Romijn, threatened to quit! Here’s why that happened:

Singer's behavior grew erratic and destructive, culminating in a fight between the director and DeSanto that shut down production. Sources who were present say DeSanto attempted to halt shooting when he learned that Singer was incapacitated after taking a narcotic. Some crewmembers had taken the same drug, and DeSanto became fearful that someone on set could be injured. All of the main cast, with the exception of McKellen, were in the scene that day, which takes place in the X Jet and comes near the end of the movie. But Singer was defiant and continued shooting, leading to a botched stunt that left Jackman bleeding on camera (no stunt coordinator was present because the scene was supposed to be shot the following day). Winter, the X-Men producer who had the authority to stop production, did so. But the next day, the studio appeared to side with Singer and told DeSanto to return to Los Angeles. That prompted the main castmembers, minus McKellen and Romijn — all dressed in their full X-Men costumes — to converge in Singer's trailer and confront him, threatening to quit if DeSanto left. That's when Berry famously said to Singer, "You can kiss my Black ass," a line that has been oft-reported in the years since but never with the correct backstory. DeSanto declined to comment about the fight. A rep for Singer says that "nothing like that ever happened."

Yet, for some reason… Fox continued to work with Singer on the future X-Men films and other projects. That’s just crazy to me. It just shows you how messed up Hollywood is and how they turn a blind eye to inappropriate behavior like this. At this point, it’s hard to think that Singer will work in the industry again after everything that has happened and come out in recent years, but we’ll have to wait and see. Hollywood is strange and messed up place.