Bryan Singer Bows Out of WonderCon In Light Of Lawsuit, Accuser Holds Press Conference

Director Bryan Singer, who was scheduled to appear in person at WonderCon this weekend to help promote X-Men: Days of Future Past, has reportedly canceled all of his appearances and interviews. According to Deadline, Singer was scheduled to promote X-Men among several other upcoming big Fox movies including How to Train Your Dragon 2, Dawn of The Planet of the Apes, and The Maze Runner.

WonderCon is a fan convention taking place this weekend in Anaheim, California and is run by Comic Con International.

Earlier this week, a lawsuit was filed in federal court in Hawaii, which accused Bryan Singer of sexually assaulting a teenager in 1999. The plaintiff, Michael F. Egan III, was 17 at the time of the assaults, which alleged happened at estates in Encino, California and Kailua, Hawaii. Singer’s lawyer, also named Singer, has vehemently denied the accusations, “We are very confident that Bryan will be vindicated in this absurd and defamatory lawsuit.”

Variety reports that Fox spokesperson Chris Petrikin released a statement regarding Singer, “These are serious allegations, and they will be resolved in the appropriate forum. This is a personal matter, which Bryan Singer and his representatives are addressing separately.”

In the meantime, studios have been distancing themselves from the director in light of the lawsuit and whether or not it was a mutual decision is unclear. Singer’s name was featured in promos for a new ABC pilot called Black Box, which premieres next week, and Deadline reports that those promos have since been pulled.

Singer’s accuser spoke at a press conference at the Four Seasons hotel in Los Angeles yesterday, saying that his mother first reported the assaults to the Los Angeles Police Department after they happened in 1999. “It basically fell on deaf ears and I basically buried it deep within me,” said Egan. “No one at a young age deserves to go through the horrific junk I went through.”

Egan admitted that he only just recently quit drinking and entered a program for trauma therapy 11 months ago. He told reporters yesterday that he continued to go to the parties with Singer due to threats made against his family and that two older boys that had taken him under his wing were the ones who reported the incidents to Egan’s mother.

Egan’s lawyer, Jeff Herman, revealed that further lawsuits in addition to the one filed against Bryan Singer would be filed in Hawaii before April 24.

[Image via New York Daily News]