X-Men Director Accused Of Teen Sexual Assault

X-Men director Bryan Singer has been accused of drugging and raping a teenage boy in the late 1990s, according to a lawsuit filed in a US court.

It is alleged the 48-year-old used his influence, as well as a range of drugs and alcohol, to force sex on the boy.

Michael Egan, 31, is seeking unspecified damages and a trial after allegations of wide-ranging abuses at California and Hawaii house parties beginning in the late 1990s, according to the civil action filed in a Hawaii federal court.

Singer's lawyer, Marty Singer, has dismissed the claims as "absurd" and "completely without merit," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

He said: "We are very confident that Bryan will be vindicated in this absurd and defamatory lawsuit."

The suit says Singer met Egan at "notorious parties" in Encino, California, around 1998.

"The parties were typically sordid and featured sexual contact between adult males and the many teenage boys who were present for the parties," the lawsuit said.

Egan, from Nevada, moved to the Los Angeles-area when he was 14 or 15 with aspirations to become an actor.

He was reportedly threatened by Singer and other men who allegedly told him they "controlled Hollywood and would destroy his hopes and dreams of an acting career if he did not keep them happy," the lawsuit said.

The suit says Egan, then 17, was flown to Hawaii on at least two roughly week-long trips in 1999 where Singer allegedly provided him with drugs and booze and assaulted him in a number of non-consensual sexual acts.

Egan's lawyer was due to give a news conference later on Thursday.

Singer has directed three X-Men films as well as The Usual Suspects, Valkyrie and Jack The Giant Slayer.

His new X-Men film Days Of Future Past opens next month.