How Rami Malek hilariously convinced Dexter Fletcher to replace Bryan Singer as 'Bohemian Rhapsody’s' director

Dexter Fletcher has opened up about replacing Bryan Singer as the director of Bohemian Rhapsody, admitting that eventual Oscar winner Rami Malek called him directly to offer him the position.

At the same time as putting in the request to Fletcher Malek also hilariously disparaged Singer to underline the terrible job that the director was doing.

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“Rami was like, ‘We ***ing need you, man. We need somebody. If you come to set and sh** on the floor, you’ll still do a better job than this guy.’”

Fletcher made this revelation to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the release of Rocketman, his upcoming Elton John biopic, which he was deep in pre production on when he got the call to replace Singer.

So what convinced Fletcher to drop everything to oversee Bohemian Rhapsody? Well, he saw the chance to show 20th Century Fox, one of the biggest studios in the world, just how professional and reliable he is.

“I want to be a guy where the folks go, ‘Well, he’s f***ing reliable. That’s good.’ Because I’ve got drive. I want to be somewhere. I want them to be like, ‘OK, we need to put together a movie. Who can we trust with that money? Well, he f***ing got us there and delivered.’”

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The plot was complicated even further by the fact that Fletcher was originally supposed to direct Bohemian Rhapsody when it was with Sony. However, just one week into pre-production the studio had cold feet about the R-rated version of the Freddie Mercury and Queen biopic and pulled out.

That proved to be a rather poor decision, as Bohemian Rhapsody went on to gross over £690 million at the box office and win four Academy Awards. Fletcher only received an executive producer credit for his efforts, though, as the Directors Guild Of America rules insist only one director can be credited for a film, and Singer had worked on most of the production.

Meanwhile, Singer’s career is now in turmoil, as he was recently accused of sexually assaulting a number of minors over a 20 year period.