Bryan Singer Fired from Freddie Mercury Biopic After Tensions with Rami Malek

Following the firing of director Bryan Singer from the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, Twentieth Century Fox has halted production of the film while it searches for a new director, the Hollywood Reporterreports.

According to the Reporter, Singer’s termination comes after a clash between Singer and actor Rami Malek, which included a fight where Singer threw an object at Malek. The studio claims that the filming was suspended because of Singer’s “unexpected unavailability.”

According to the Reporter, Singer was absent several times during production. He didn’t return to the film after Thanksgiving break and cinematographer Thomas Newton Sigel stepped in to shoot days when he was gone.

Singer was filed after Malek complained of the director’s absence, unreliability and unprofessionalism. According to the Reporter, only two weeks are left in filming.

The biopic originally caught flack online for its erasure of the AIDS epidemic and Mercury’s HIV-positive status.