X-MEN celebrated its 20th anniversary on July 14 and it has primarily been celebrated as one of the first mainstream Marvel comic book adaptations that paved the way for even bigger adaptations to come. Graced with solid reviews and an impressive box office gross of $157.2 million on a $75 million budget, the success of X-MEN spawned eight films and five spinoffs that would go on to gross $6 billion worldwide for 20th Century Fox but in a very expansive piece for "The Hollywood Reporter" many behind the scenes players that worked on the film detail how behavior by director Bryan Singer during the making of the film created a monster on set and how the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson, wanted to take on the role of Professor X.
Singer was 34 at the time he was tasked with directing X-MEN and in the director, they had an auteur who they believed could craft a big-budget superhero extravaganza. Thanks to his debut PUBLIC ACCESS, which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, and 1995's THE USUAL SUSPECTS, a film that saw writer Christoper McQuarrie and Kevin Spacey win Oscars, Singer was treated like a piece of royalty as he entered the X-MEN orbit. As Singer began filming X-MEN, behind the scenes a series of crises raged that included drug use, tantrums, and a writer's feud. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner, who worked as a producer on all of the X-MEN films, believes that the lack of consequences put Singer on a path that eventually morphed him into a pariah:
"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."
By the summer of 1998, X-MEN was greenlit with Singer at a $75 million budget. McQuarrie was brought in to do a three-week rewrite on the project but soon more drama ensued by October of 1998. McQuarrie hadn't delivered his draft and the studio rescinded its greenlight. At this point, Tom DeSanto and Singer worked on the script and they were given the greenlight again, with Joss Whedon coming in late in the game to also provide a rewrite but despite producer Shuler Donner saying it was good because "it had humor in it", Singer wanted his movie to much more serious and dramatic so only two of Whedon's lines made it into the shooting script. Singer had a large amount of control on set as a director and co-writer for the rewrites but this led to many unprofessional story meetings according to sources provided by "The Hollywood Reporter."
"Bryan would bring people to story meetings who weren't involved in the movies. Young guys. A different person every time."
David Hayter, who served as Singer's assistant and was answering phones in the production offices for $500 a week, ended up receiving sole credit for the screenplay despite all the A-list writers that were brought in to work on the story and script. Hayter went on to explain his truly strange road to getting sole credit for the X-MEN screenplay:
"Singer started taking me to script meetings with Peter Rice and Tom Rothman, and he would stay, '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."
Singer's approach with who was ultimately tasked to write X-MEN was very similar to how he went into casting certain roles. Singer was primarily in charge of all casting and he went about it by employing a mix of Shakespearean-trained actors (McKellen and Patrick Stewart), a pro wrestler (Tyler Mane), a supermodel (Rebecca Romijn) and a pre-Oscar winning Halle Berry. Things were so crazy in regards to casting at the time that Michael Jackson came in to discuss playing Professor X in the film. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner recalls telling Jackson "Do you know Xavier is an older white guy? and Michael said, 'Oh yeah. You know, I can wear makeup." Jackson even brought in an elaborated presentation complete with a short film that showed him morphing into a 60-something white mayor but 20th Century Fox never seriously considered Jackson for the role, which ultimately went to Patrick Stewart. The Jackson encounter was just another day in the life of the unpredictable Bryan Singer experience.
Singer's tempter also was a cause of concern on the X-MEN set. During interviews at the time, he did admit that he was taking pain medication for a bad back but others on set said his drug use was extremely problematic and led to late arrivals on set, mood swings, and explosive tantrums. Some of the characters, specifically Romijn's Mystique, required hours of body painting and make-up before filming but on a whim, Singer would decide not to use her in a scene after all of the work had been done. Marvel Studios' head, Kevin Feige, then a young executive working for Shuler Donner, was eventually sent to set to ensure that Singer was being kept in line.
Despite all of this, Singer was brought back for X2, which carried a budget that was $50 million higher than that of the first film. This was done because X-MEN was successful and success can make many forget the questionable behavior, misconduct, and tantrums. It's no surprise that these problems carried over to the sequel which led to more narcotics problems with Singer that left him incapacitated during shooting. There are tales of that led to botched stunt that left Hugh Jackman bleeding on camera due to Singer's impaired judgment. The shooting was halted that day after the incident but the studio sided with Singer and shooting continued the next day but this led to the full X-MEN cast, minus McKellen and Romijn who wasn't present that day, to confront Singer in his trailer with threats to quit the project.
X2 proved to be an even bigger hit than X-MEN, grossing $408 million worldwide, and this only made Singer a bit invincible in the industry despite his behavior. Fox brought him back for two more X-MEN movies: 2014's DAYS OF FUTURE PAST and 2016's APOCALYPSE. There were murmurs of issues on FUTURE PAST but APOCALYPSE had on-set problems that went very public with the director disappearing for days during shooting. Olivia Munn, who played Psylocke in the film, went public some months ago with the issues on the APOCALYPSE set and they mirrored problems that led to his dismissal from Fox's BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY. Singer allegedly clashed with Rami Malek on set and he was also missing in action on that film which led to director Dexter Fletcher coming in to finish the film.
The fact that a lot of this goes back to X-MEN, a film that began production in 1999, says a lot about what studio heads will let slide if you are talented and they think they can make money off of you. Shuler Donner, who declined to attend the X-MEN premiere in 2000 out of frustration with Singer, goes on to say this about the situation:
"He was very nervous and he would act out when he was insecure, as many people do. But his way of acting out would be to yell and scream at everybody on set. Or walk off the set or shut down production. You have to understand, the guy is brilliant, and that was why we tolerated him and cajoled him. And if he wasn't so f*cked up, he would be a really great director."
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