(Asked why Singer was hired despite the allegations against him, a Millennium publicist said, “I am afraid the response is ‘unavailable for comment.’ ”) The protagonist of Red Sonja is a survivor of sexual assault. This fall, Millennium Films signed Singer to direct Red Sonja, an adaptation of a sword-and-sorcery comic book, for a reported $10 million. Singer continues to enjoy the benefit of the doubt in Hollywood. In today’s climate where people’s careers are being harmed by mere accusations, what attempting to do is a reckless disregard for the truth, making assumptions that are fictional and irresponsible. They have contacted my friends, colleagues and people I don’t even know. I have known for some time that a negative article about me. (He also disputed specific details in this story, as noted throughout.) Singer himself wrote an Instagram post in October that read, in part: Brettler, noted that Singer has never been arrested for or charged with any crime, and that Singer categorically denies ever having sex with, or a preference for, underage men. When asked for comment, Singer’s lawyer, Andrew B. And he was abetted, in a less direct way, by an industry in which a record of producing hits confers immense power: Many of the sources we interviewed insisted, out of fear of damaging their own career, that we withhold their name, even as they expressed dismay at the behavior they’d witnessed. Their accounts suggest that Singer didn’t act alone he was aided by friends and associates who brought him young men. The portrait of Singer that emerges is of a troubled man who surrounded himself with vulnerable teenage boys, many of them estranged from their families. The victims we interviewed told us these experiences left them psychologically damaged, with substance-abuse problems, depression, and PTSD.

Some of the alleged victims say they were seduced by the director while underage others say they were raped. The accusations against Singer cover a spectrum. (They asked The Atlantic to conceal their identity for fear of retaliation, and because they didn’t want certain details about their past made public.) The portrait of Singer that emerges is of a troubled man who surrounded himself with vulnerable teenage boys.

Both men say Singer, who was then in his early 30s, knew they were under 18, the age of consent in California. A man we’ll call Eric told us that he was 17 in 1997 when he and Singer had sex at a party at the director’s house another we’ll call Andy says he was only 15 that same year, when he and Singer had sex in a Beverly Hills mansion. In total, we spoke with more than 50 sources, including four men who have never before told their stories to reporters. We spent 12 months investigating various lawsuits and allegations against Singer. As one prominent actor told us, “After the Harvey Weinstein news came out, everyone thought Bryan Singer would be next.” These allegations were so well known that 4,000 students, faculty members, and alumni at the University of Southern California had signed a petition asking the school to take Singer’s name off one of its programs, the Bryan Singer Division of Cinema and Media Studies-which the school did immediately after Sanchez-Guzman filed his suit. Almost from the moment his star began to rise, Singer, who is now 53, has been trailed by allegations of sexual misconduct. Still, Sanchez-Guzman’s claims shouldn’t have been much of a surprise.

The day after that, Deadline Hollywood published an interview with a former boyfriend of Singer’s, Bret Tyler Skopek, in which Skopek described a lifestyle of drugs and orgies.Īccording to multiple sources, Fox had no idea that the Sanchez-Guzman lawsuit was coming when the studio fired Singer. On December 7, 2017, three days after The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of Singer’s firing, a Seattle man named Cesar Sanchez-Guzman filed a lawsuit against the director, alleging that Singer had raped him in 2003, when Sanchez-Guzman was 17. Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.

Singer impression