Out director Bryan Singer has failed to return to the set of Bohemian Rhapsody, a biopic about Freddie Mercury, after taking a break for Thanksgiving. Production of the film, which is being shot in the United Kingdom, has been suspended until he returns.
A representative said in a statement that Singer left due to a “personal health matter concerning Bryan and his family.” In 2015, he had a son with actress Michelle Clunie.
“Bryan hopes to get back to work on the film soon after the holidays,” the statement said.
The disappearance occurs as sexual assault charges heat up against the director. Last month, in a series of tweets, Justin Smith said that his boyfriend was best friends with Singer, and that Singer would invite them to parties that involved wealthy older men and underage boys who were partly naked.
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At one of these parties in 2000, Smith wrote that Singer penetrated him with his finger while holding him in place, and then told him that no one would believe him so he should keep quiet about it.
The tweets were almost immediately deleted, and a day later Singer deleted his Twitter account as well, which some Twitter users said included “shady pics” of him with younger males.
It was not the first time that Singer was accused of sexual impropriety. In 1997, a lawsuit that was dismissed for lack of evidence accused him of forcing underage extras to shower naked on the set of a film.
In 2014, a man named Michael Egan sued Singer, alleging that he was plied with drugs and promises of Hollywood fame as a teenager in exchange for having sex with adult men.
Egan later plead guilty to fraud for conning investors out of tens of thousands of dollars and was sentenced to two years in prison. He also sued three other Hollywood figures, alleging sexual abuse, and his lawyers admitted that he knowingly fabricated allegations against two of them.
Singer has a history of taking unexpected breaks from his work. He also temporarily disappeared from the sets of Superman Returns and X-Men: Apocalypse.
