Bryan Singer

Bryan Singer

Director
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Life Story

Bryan Singer was born on September 17, 1965 in New York City, New York, USA as Bryan Jay Singer. He is a producer and director, known for X-Men (2000), The Usual Suspects (1995) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014).

Family

No info available

 

Trivia

Parents are Norbert Dave and Grace Singer.
Attended and graduated from USC cinema school in 1989.
Attended and graduated from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School in New Jersey.
Met composer/editor/director John Ottman at USC School of Cinema-Television.
Attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City for a brief period of time but did not graduate from there. Visited the school in October 2000 to talk to the film students about his experiences in the film industry.
Cousin of actors Marc Singer, Gregory Singer, Lori Singer, Claude Singer.
One of his favorite movies is the thriller film Jaws (1975). His production company, Bad Hat Harry Productions, is named after a line said by Chief Martin Brody in the film.
Received a copy of the mockumentary Forgotten Silver (1995) as a gift from director Peter Jackson, to thank him for finishing Ian McKellen's scenes in X-Men (2000) in time for him to fly to New Zealand and begin work on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001).
Is a huge fan of the original Star Trek (1966) series and has a cameo appearance in Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) as a crewman on the bridge of the USS Enterprise.
Ranked #46 on Premiere magazine's 2006 "Power 50" list. It is his first appearance on the list.
DC Comics offered Singer access to the 20-plus years of development information that Superman has had since 1986, but Singer vehemently refused to use this information, instead insisting that he use only the continuity of the Richard Donner films.
Best friends with director Gary Goddard and childhood friends with actor Ethan Hawke.
Turned down the chance to direct X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), as he was too busy with other projects.
The third director to do three live-action adaptations of a comic book series. The first being Sam Raimi with his Spider Man trilogy and the second being Christopher Nolan with his Batman trilogy.
Directed one Oscar winning performance: Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects (1995).
Attended the San Diego Comic-Con in a surprise appearance to promote his movie X-Men (2000). [July 2000]
Was set to direct Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) but turned it down due schedule conflicts with X-Men 2 (2003).
Considered to direct the thriller film Prisoners (2013).

Personal Quotes 

[About Superman's costume for Superman Returns (2006)]: I always had the general idea of the suit. With X-Men, although they had extraordinary powers, they also had physical weaknesses. The suits were for protection as well as costume. Superman is the Man of Steel. Bullets bounce off him, not the suit.
[About casting Brandon Routh as Superman/Clark Kent in Superman Returns (2006)]: I was always dead set on casting an unknown. Brandon embodied the character the best -- his acting talent, physical presence and personality.
Superman has always been about Lois Lane, Superman and Clark Kent and this love triangle between these three people who really are only two people.
I identify with Superman. I am adopted, I am an only child, and I love the idea that he comes from another world, that he's the ultimate immigrant. He has all these extraordinary powers, and he has a righteousness about him.
There's no point in making films unless you intend to show us something special, otherwise just go out and watch a play. Kubrick showed us something special. Every film was a challenge, and a direct assault on cinema's conventions.
On Tom Cruise: If you look at Tom's work, there's a lot of very strange characters. People very often leap right to the Mission: Impossible and the Top Gun roles when they think of him. But he started as a character actor in Taps (1981) - nobody really thought of him as a leading man until Risky Business (1983). And then after Top Gun he was a superstar. But look, there's Rain Man (1988), where he plays a real prick. And he played the hitman in Collateral (2004). He really is interested in playing challenging roles; he's a terrific actor. I really think he's an actor who happens to be a movie star.
One thing that interests me is the notion of ancient mutants. What would people, thousands of years ago, without the benefit of science, think mutants were? And more importantly, what would mutants, thousands of years ago, think they were? Gods? Titans? Angels? Demons? And if such mutants did exist thousands of years ago, what became of them? Did one survive?
Before Jaws (1975), there was no such thing as a summer blockbuster. It's my favorite film of all time. My production company is called Bad Hat Harry, which is a line in Jaws. Everything comes back to Jaws. It defines us. It created the summer movie. It still scares the shit out of people today and is one of the most structurally unconventional films in the mainstream lexicon. Basically, the first half of the movie is An Enemy of the People (1978) and the second half is Moby Dick (1956). It's two movies, split in half right down the middle, and it works remarkably. It changed the course of film history.

Filmography

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