In the late 1990s Hayter was a struggling actor and amateur filmmaker living in LA. He hadn't acted in two years. He was broke. He had one option, call an old friend and beg for a job. That friend was Bryan Singer, the guy making "X-Men". Singer took mercy on Hayter allowed him to answer phones for the company. Then eventually he became Singer's driver. But during all this they struck up conversations about "X-Men", Singer learned that Hayter was an avid fan of the comic. One day while driving Singer to work, while listening to Singer talk about some problems with the script, Hayter offered some suggestions. After taking in Hayter suggestions Singer told Hayter to write it up and give it to him. Hayter thought he was joking and did nothing. The next morning when Singer asked for the pages Hayter realized he probably blew it, he told Singer he thought he was joking. Singer said he wasn't and told Hayter to do it immediately. Which he did. Soon Hayter was going to story meetings under the guise of "taking notes" for Singer. Unknown to the studio executives, Hayter would take the notes and go home and re-write the scenes. Eventually he had re-written half the script.

Eventually the producer on the project inquired about how much Hayter had written and they ended up signing him to a contract and in the end he received screenwriting credit on the film. With residuals netting him close to a million dollars.

Notes: Wrote an unused drafts of the "Hulk" (2003) and "The Chronicles of Riddick" (2004). He is the voice of many EA sports commercials, and says their slogan: "EA Sports: It's in the Game!" before every game. Wrote a 324 page screenplay addaptation to the graphic novel "Watchmen" by Allan Moore and David Gibbons which has been hailed as one of the most accurate translations of comics to films ever written.