Dexter Fletcher took Bohemian Rhapsody job to know what to not do on Rocketman
Dexter Fletcher was advised by producer Matthew Vaughn to step in to direct 'Bohemian Rhapsody' so he knew what to avoid on 'Rocketman'.
Dexter Fletcher was advised to step in to direct 'Bohemian Rhapsody' so he knew what to avoid on 'Rocketman'.
The 57-year-old filmmaker stepped in to helm the last few weeks on the Queen biopic after Bryan Singer was fired and though he had begun pre-production on the Sir Elton John movie, producer Matthew Vaughn could see the benefit of him working on both projects.
Dexter - who was only credited as executive producer on 'Bohemian Rhapsody' because of DGA rules - told The Hollywood Reporter: "The truth was that I’d been involved with Bohemian Rhapsody a couple of years earlier when it was at Sony, with a different actor attached. I got a long way through the process, in fact, and I was pretty much in the first week of pre-production when it fell apart.
"So I knew that material well, and I knew that Queen knew me, which was obviously very important for them because Freddie [Mercury] was their friend and dearest loved one...
"So when they had issues there, that opportunity came. I had just made 'Eddie the Eagle' for Fox, so Fox also knew me and understood how I worked. My friend Matt Vaughn brokered that idea as well.
"Matt had me in pre-production on 'Rocketman', and he candidly said to me, 'You should go and do this, because then you can see what they’re doing and make sure we don’t do it on 'Rocketman.'
"I knew they were different films, but the opportunity to stretch my legs as it were and have a foot in that world was too good to be true in a lot of ways. It was a real gift.
"So I committed as much as I could and took the time out of prep for 'Rocketman', but Matthew Vaughn really gave me the trust and the faith to do that and not undermine what we were doing so importantly on 'Rocketman'."
The former 'Press Gang' actor is still "somewhat bemused" that Taron Egerton didn't receive an Oscar nomination for the movie, particularly after Rami Malek won for 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and Austin Butler was shortlisted for 'Elvis'.
He said: "I don’t have the answer for that. I’m somewhat bemused as well, but that’s the nature of it, isn’t it? It’s what the competition was that year, and what other things were going on at the time.
"These things don’t necessarily follow an understandable or regulated pattern, and taste is subjective.
"So I’m not the best person to answer this because I genuinely believe that he should have been nominated, and I don’t think I’m alone in that opinion. So it’s a difficult one."
Dexter also worked with the actor on 'Eddie the Eagle' and the pair are planning to make a third movie together.
The director revealed: "Taron and I actually have an agreement that we’re gonna do three films together, so we’ve gotta find a third one. We don’t know what that is yet, but there’s something out there for us."
