Poll: ‘X-Men’ and Bryan Singer’s Sex Abuse Scandal

This weekend’s release of the big-budget sequel ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ is expected to be one of the biggest movies of the summer. Yet for the last few months, the film has been dogged by a behind-the-scenes sex abuse scandal involving director Bryan Singer, who has pulled out of all public promotion for it. Has any of this changed your mind about seeing the movie?

In case you’re not up to speed on the controversy, Time has a good summary of the situation. In brief, the director (who is openly gay) has been accused by a now 31-year-old man of forcing him into sex when he was an aspiring teen actor. Through his attorney, Singer has denied the story, as you’d expect him to whether he’s innocent or guilty.

The events in question allegedly took place in 1999 and 2000. The fact that the alleged victim waited 14 years to level these charges has led some to suspect that this is all just a shakedown scam, while others see this as an opportunity to expose the rampant sexual abuse that supposedly permeates the Hollywood community.

I don’t know what really happened, and I doubt that any of us in the public will ever know. Nevertheless, whether true or not, the stink of scandal could negatively affect Singer’s career.

As far as ‘X-Men’ is concerned, however, most industry watchers doubt that the film’s box office will take much of a hit. The franchise name is expected to overshadow the director and carry it to blockbuster success regardless. More likely to happen is that Singer may be excluded from future involvement with the series, and his other projects may suffer.

Or, quite possibly, if no one buys the story, this could all blow over and amount to nothing.

With two infants at home, I’m not likely to get out to the theater myself, but I plan to catch ‘X-Men’ on Blu-ray.

Does Bryan Singer's Sex Abuse Scandal Affect Your Plans to See 'X-Men: Days of Future Past'?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

27 comments

  1. Guy

    The middle ground, where I fall, is missing from the choices. My enthusiasm has been tempered by the heaviness of the allegations and the shadow they cast, but I’m not staying away from a movie worked on by thousands because of unproven claims about one man. It’s a much less heightened version of my feelings walking into the opening day matinee showing of The Dark Knight Rises. The Aurora tragedy and thoughts for those affected weighed heavily on me as I first took my seat that day. I imagine a little of the same will occur with this. Fairly quickly, though, I’ll get sucked into the experience of the film and that will be that. That transitive quality is part of why we watch movies.

  2. Chris B

    Hey, even if the negative press kills Singer’s Hollywood career, he could always get into directing gay porn! “Sex-Men: Gays of Future Ass”!

  3. William Henley

    I chose “this is the first I have heard about any of this”. Truthfully, though, it doesn’t bother me. Scandals have plauged Hollywood for years, and has never affected my enjoyment of a movie. I still watch Mel Gibson movies, as well as Jim Carry movies, and those are just the two that come to mind. Their private or criminal lives or political views have no effect on the enjoyment of a movie, in my opinion….. Unless the subject matter of said movie is what the controversey is about.

    Now, unless a portion of the proceeds of this movie are going to NAMBLA, I see no reason not to go see this movie.

      • William Henley

        With Jim Carrey, it was political stance. Pulling out of the PR for Kick Ass 2, and all the stuff he said about gun owners.

        • Chris B

          Ahhh….yeah I remember him refusing to promote it after the whole Sandy Hook tragedy. I wasn’t aware that he was specifically criticizing gun owners themselves though.

          I never saw the second Kick-Ass movie because I loathed the first one so much, it wasn’t the fact that it was gratuitously violent, it was the tone of the violence itself that I found offensive.

          • hurin

            You didn’t miss much. The elements from the Hit Girl comics dragged the movie down. Aaron was just copying his part in the first movie, Chlõe may have been a great child actor but she is a mediocre teen actor, Christopher and Olga are the only reasons to see the movie.

  4. Really, we’ve heard zero evidence on this case either way. To make a judgment based solely on accusations is very “Crucible” to me. Even then, Singer isn’t the only one who made the movie. Why punish the work of hundreds of others because one guy may or may not have done something horrible?

  5. Charles M

    I’m a big believer in “innocent until proven guilty”. I’ll watch until it’s proven fact that he committed those crimes.

      • hurin

        This is just Enders Game all over again.

        Do you even begin to comprehend how pathetic you seem. Trying to pretend you’re somehow morally superior to the rest of us, just because you’re boycotting a movie?

        Hitler was a vegetarian, loved animals, created the first anti-smoking campaign, and didn’t want others to watch movies he didn’t like.
        Luckily for the rest of us, you’re just a toothless dog. Lots of bark but no bite.

        • Josh Zyber
          Author

          Please work on your reading comprehension. I did not boycott Ender’s Game. I didn’t go see that movie because it didn’t look very good to me, irrespective of the controversy around its author.

          I am also not boycotting X-Men. I will not be able to get out to the theater much this summer, but I plan to catch that movie on Blu-ray.

          This is a poll in which I ask others to weigh in on the topic, because I am interested to hear a spectrum of opinions. I have not insisted nor ever even asked anyone to boycott the movie.

      • Thanks for the info. I’m not dying to see the new X-Men movie anyways, but this scandal doesn’t make me want to see it any more or any less. I’m pretty sure it will do very well regardless of the scandal. Actually, I’m still rooting for Godzilla to take the number one for this weekend. If I really wanted to see it, I would go see it.

      • Charles M

        Good question. I’d probably give in at some point and watch it. Same thing kind of happened with Jeepers Creepers and Roman Polanski movies. Though I haven’t watched any of Victor Salva’s other films and that’s by choice.

        It’s complicated isn’t it? So many film makers and artists were terrible people, yet we still watch their films. I read Lovecraft stories yet I know he was a racist bastard.

  6. First I’ve heard of this. Does it have to do anything with Apt Pupil? I feel like there was some controversy when that movie came out, about naked boys or something. Let me know…

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      The alleged victim was an aspiring teen actor in the late 1990s.

      http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20807726,00.html

      “The lawsuit claims Egan was lured into a sex ring with promises of auditions for acting, modeling and commercial jobs. He was paid as an actor for a digital entertainment company, but forced to have sex with adult men at parties notorious within Hollywood’s entertainment industry, the lawsuit said.”

      These sex parties supposedly took place in Hawaii. Singer’s lawyer claims he can prove that Singer wasn’t in Hawaii when this happened. He also says that the victim filed a virtually identical lawsuit in 2000 against other Hollywood players but never mentioned anything about Singer in that one.

      Since the scandal broke, another accuser has come out of the woodworks:

      http://www.people.com/article/x-men-director-bryan-singer-another-sexual-abuse-lawsuit

      “In the lawsuit, filed May 3 in Los Angeles Federal Court, an anonymous British man accuses Goddard of contacting him on social media in 2003 when he was 14, engaging in nude webcam sessions when he was 15, and having sex with him when he was 16.

      When he was 17, the man claims in the lawsuit, Singer fondled him and tried to force him to have sex – bringing in a “large, muscle-bound man” to “smack [him] around” to try to get him to comply – at an after-afterparty in the director’s hotel suite following the 2006 U.K. premiere of Superman Returns.”

      • hurin

        This is beyond stupid. I also did a couple of false profiles back then (not proud of it), but it was very easy to do back then.
        Besides unless Goddard is a complete retard, he probably wouldn’t use his real name to commit crimes on the internet, don’t you think?

      • William Henley

        You know, I don’t know if the waiting 14 years is really that out of the question. I got a story, not sex abuse, but bullying. It went past being mean, it was physical assault. This was in high school. Happened right in front of the teacher, and she looked the other way. Honestly thought there was nothing I could do about it, and finally repressed it. It wasn’t until years later, when I was an adult, after I saw him on television because he is now an athlete for a major sports team, that I thought about filing charges. I didn’t, but certainly considered it. Not really sure what good it would do now.

        So I guess it is not unreasonable that someone could wait 14 years and right before a major movie comes out to file charges. I guess the question is, is he filing criminal charges or civil charges? If its criminal, there may be something to it. If its civil, he may just be looking for money. If its both, then there may be something to it as well.

        But I will reserve judgement until proven guilty. And I also won’t boycott a movie that thousands of others put time and money into.

  7. Deaditelord

    First off, if these allegations of rape (forcing someone to have sex is rape so lets just call it what it is) are true, then Bryan Singer deserves to rot in a jail cell for the rest of his life. Why we release convicted rapists from jail so that they can once again prey on an unsuspecting public is beyond my comprehension. Lock these sickos in a dark cell and throw away the key.

    Having said that, I’m always suspicious about the validity of accusations when they suddenly materialize well after said crime(s) occurred… ESPECIALLY when it happens close to or shortly after an event likely to result in a significant cash windfall for the person being accused. I could understand if he was a very young child at the time. However, at 17 years old – the age the alleged victim claims he was raped – he was old enough to comprehend what was happening to him was a crime and yet this man decides to wait almost 14 years and make the allegations just before the release of a potential summer blockbuster? Raises some questions about the validity of his claim in my opinion.

    • Deaditelord

      Not to suggest that Bryan Singer was ever convicted of a sex crime and was released from prison. I meant just in general.

      • David Duprey

        So will Bryan Singer become our generation’s Roman Polanski??

        If you see Singer buying a plane ticket to France, then the allegations may be true.

        • RollTide1017

          It makes me sick how Hollywood continues to worship Polanski, it basically says rape is okay in Hollywood. I’ve never seen a Polanski movie and I never will. I’m not going to let my money help support that sicko who should be rotting in jail right now.

          Sorry for the little rant, it just gets under my skin how highly regarded he is in Hollywood after what he did.

          • Josh Zyber
            Author

            What Polanski did was wrong and terrible, and the way he handled it and fled from responsibility was even worse. However, that’s a very complex story with a hell of a lot of extenuating circumstances, and I don’t think it can be reduced to simply labeling him a “sicko” and writing off the entirety of his life and career. Even his victim has forgiven him and believes she has been exploited by the prosecutors of the case.

            My $0.02.

  8. I haven’t stopped seeing (and enjoying) movies from Woody Allen, Mel Gibson, and Roman Polanski, so just because Bryan Singer is the director, it’s not going to make me stay home. People need to remember that 100s (or possibly 1000s in the case of a big-budget movie like this) of people worked on this film, so we shouldn’t boycott a movie because of any one person.

  9. Jesse

    I don’t invest much in ACCUSATIONS. Accusations are free. Any bottom-feeder can accuse anyone of anything at any time, and if the accusation is serious enough–and appears remotely possible–it raises the specter of suspicion among people who confuse accusals with guilt. (Salem, 1692)
    My employer represents a man falsely accused by his ex-wife of molesting their young child. The court eventually ruled the accusations were without merit, and granted the father sole custody of the child. Although justice prevailed in this case, this man has been ruined financially in the process and has had to basically walk around with “possible child molester” tattooed on his forehead for the past several years. (His ex-wife has not been reprimanded.)

    • William Henley

      There is no justice in this country for the poor. I have a friend who is out 30 grand already trying to prove his innocence in a case, and that is just from posting bail. He had to actually hire a lawyer because the court appointed one basically didn’t care one way or the other, so I have no clue what his lawyer bill is. The case is still on going (they keep putting it off because all their evidence against him keeps collapsing – in fact the person who accused him, who was their star witness, was diagnosed scytzophrantic), and has ruined his life, kept him from getting jobs, etc.

      I am in the process of trying to bring a lawsuit, and was shocked when I found out how much it was going to cost me. Even if I go at it without a lawyer, it is going to cost me considerably more than I have in my savings at the moment, as you still have to pay someone to do the research and prepare court documents, and pay the courts.

      The legal system in this country is broken, BAD. Pretty much, who has the most money wins, whether they are right or not.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *