Due to Director’s Guild of America rules, Singer retained his credit, with Fletcher instead billed as an executive producer. But what exactly did Fletcher film, and what had Singer already finished by the time he left? Oscar-nominated editor John Ottman revealed the answer in a new interview.
“[Fletcher] was there for a short time because obviously he wanted to come in and go over the scenes that he’d shot, and you know, it was the first time I had ever worked with another director as an editor,” Ottman recalled to Deadline.
“He would come in, and he just obviously wanted to see what I had done with his scenes.
“He also shot a couple of sequences in the recording studios — not the early ones, but the ones sitting together, ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ and ‘We Will Rock You,’ — just when they’re kind of talking about putting the songs together.
“And then he just wanted to get a general overview of how his scenes were being integrated in the film. And he had his notes on the flow of the film and then he went off to do Rocketman.”
Rami Malek, who plays Freddie Mercury, recently confirmed that Singer was fired from production. The film-maker has been accused of multiple counts of sexual abuse, all of which he denies.
Fletcher himself had previously told IndieWire prior to the film’s release that he had “good input” but that much of the filming was already done.
“I came into the last few weeks of principal photography and editing and the bits and pieces like that,” he said.
“So I was lucky to have a really good input to something, but it’s really about watching what had been already created and being part of that.
“It wasn’t like changing and reinventing the wheel.”
Bohemian Rhapsody has broken a slew of records, and is the most successful biopic of all time.
It heads into Oscars weekend as a Best Picture nominee, while Rami Malek is overwhelming favourite to win Best Actor for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury.
Fletcher, meanwhile, moves on to Rocketman – an Elton John biopic with Taron Egerton in the lead role.
Bohemian Rhapsody is out now on digital download.