Bryan Singer
Bryan Singer is an American filmmaker who body of work has been split between low-budget psychological thrillers and high-budget superhero movies. He is an avid fan of the moviegoing experience and with every film has tried to aim for a different genre. He has admitted on many occassions that he looks to his favorite films of the past, especially those by Stanley Kubrick, for inspiration and then adds his own style to it. He is the head of Bad Hat Harry productions, named from a line in his favorite movie Jaws.
His first major break was directing The Usual Suspects, which made him a very popular independant filmmaker. After his second film, Apt Pupil, he was offered the job that would make him go mainstream, directing the first X Men movie. The films success started a new trend of hiring low-key filmmakers to helm the big budget movies. His attention to the characters and goals of making their world plausible became the source of the second age of superhero movies, which is still ongoing.
After the second X-Men film, Singer jumped at the chance to direct the next Superman film, which resulted in the third X-Men film being made without him. While it made money, Superman Returns did not have the box office ratio the studio was hoping for and he is currently not a part of future Superman movies.
He's currently working on an adaptation of Jack the Giant Killer, followed by another reboot of Battlestar Galactica.
Selected productions:
- The Usual Suspects
- Apt Pupil
- X Men and X2: X Men United (also co-wrote and co-produced X-Men: First Class)
- Superman Returns
- Valkyrie
Other work
- House (Bad Hat Harry is the production company and he directed a few episodes, including a cameo in one of them.)
- Star Trek: Nemesis (A lifelong Star Trek fan, his new friendship with Patrick Stewart in the X-Men films allowed him a cameo as a bridge officer.)