Movies - Bryan Singer

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	Movies - Bryan Singer

Bryan Singer (born September 17 1965) is an American film director. Actors Lori and Marc Singer are his cousins. Singer, a critically acclaimed director, is especially popular among fans of the sci-fi and comic book genres for his work on the first two X-Men
films and the upcoming Superman Returns
.

Biography

Singer was born in New York City, and was adopted and grew up in a Jewish household in New Jersey. He attended West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South (formerly just West Windsor-Plainsboro High School), then studied filmmaking at New York's School of Visual Arts and later USC School of Cinema-Television in Los Angeles. He is Jewish and openly gay, and has said that his life experiences of growing up as a minority influenced his development of the X-Men movies.

His production company is Bad Hat Harry Productions, which produces House and works in television, film, and video game media. It is named after a line from Jaws
, one of his favourite films. This line, "That's some bad hat, Harry", is heard in the company's end credit clip.

Work

Lion's Den

After graduating, Singer directed a short film called Lion's Den. With Lion's Den he involved a number of friends, including actor Ethan Hawke who he knew from his childhood in New Jersey and editor John Ottman who he had met while working on a friend's short film.

Public Access

After a screening of Lion's Den, Singer was approached by someone who knew of a Japanese company that funded low-budget films. Together with Christopher McQuarrie, a friend from high school, Singer wrote the screenplay for Public Access
, a movie about a supposedly idyllic small town. Ottman again served as editor but this time also composed the score for the film. At the 1993 Sundance Film Festival the film was named as co-winner of the Grand Jury Prize.

The Usual Suspects

While attending the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, Singer and McQuarrie began discussing an idea that McQuarrie had for a story where "five criminals meet in a police line-up". The film, The Usual Suspects
, won a number of awards including the 1995 BAFTA Award for Best Film and Saturn Award for Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film. Writer McQuarrie won the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay and the BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay, composer/editor Ottman won the BAFTA Award for Best Editing and the Saturn Award for Best Music and actor Kevin Spacey won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Apt Pupil

In 1998, Singer directed Apt Pupil
, from a screenplay written by Brandon Boyce, another of his friends. The story, adapted from a Stephen King novella of the same name (collected in the book Different Seasons), tells of a young boy who develops a morbid fascination with a Nazi war criminal. An experience from Singer's childhood, where he and his friends briefly formed a "Nazi Club", is often cited as attracting him to this project (Singer said this club was born not out of anti-Semitism but rather due to the kids' fascination with World War II).

X-Men

Singer was initially approached by 20th Century Fox to direct X-Men
after directing The Usual Suspects, but not being a fan of comics and being unaware of the characters, Singer turned them down. However his friend Tom DeSanto, a big fan of the comics and partner in his production company Bad Hat Harry Productions, eventually persuaded Singer to reconsider and after reading the comics and becoming familiar with the characters, Singer signed on to direct. Rejecting all the scripts and storylines that were developed over a decade of failed production attempts, Singer developed the story for the film with DeSanto in a week and then worked on the script with a friend who had actually started out as Singer's driver, David Hayter. Singer won the 2000 Saturn Award for Best Direction for X-Men.

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