Instead of shopping for furniture, Singer has concentrated on filmmaking, turning once again to his childhood friend, screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, to flesh out Stan Lee's 1963 comic book adventures of mutant superheroes. "X-Men' is basically about reluctant superheroes sworn to defend the world that hates and fears them. It's actually about prejudice," Singer told a reporter.

"We are all mutants in our own world. We feel lonely and left out."
— Avi Arad, CEO of Marvel Studios and executive producer of X-Men.

"What made me believe the film could work was spending time with Bryan," reported Exec producer Avi Arad. "He was not an X-Men geek at all, but he understood the people behind the defects and really set up the story."

Singer had always wanted to be a filmmaker since that fateful day in high school when he saw a TV documentary on Steven Spielberg: "He was this Jewish kid like me who lived in New Jersey for awhile," Singer told reporter Bernard Weinraub. Spielberg, too, had had a drawer full of 8-millimeter movies when he was young, prompting Singer to think: "I make all these films for fun and I take all these photographs, why don't I do this for a living, just like Steven Spielberg?" So, it was a TV program that inspired Singer to aim for a career in film.

After attending the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and the University of Southern California, Singer made a first film called Lion's Den with actor Ethan Hawke. His first feature, Public Access shared the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992 with Ruby in Paradise.

Singer's second feature, the surprise film noir hit The Usual Suspects, earned Kevin Spacey his first Academy Award and Best Screenplay for Christopher McQuarrie. The fictional character Keyser Soze entered the public vocabulary and Singer entered the big time. Although his follow-up film, Apt Pupil died at the box office, its off-kilter tale of a high school boy's research into a neighbor's Nazi past did offer Singer the chance to work with Ian McKellan.

"I don't always know with Bryan what he's been getting at, where he's precisely going, until I've seen the dailies or the complete film," Sir Ian told the New York Times. "He always has a vision of what he wants, but it's a rather private thing. More than any director I know of, you're on a roller coaster with Bryan. You're racing along but you don't quite know where you're going. With other directors you're following a map. Not with Bryan. He works in the moment. He eschews planning and rehearsals. This might be very alarming for some actors. Not for me."

So what's next for Bryan Singer? How 'bout buying some furniture.

Glenn Myrent

Filmography:

Public Access (1992)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Apt Pupil (1998)
X-Men (2000)