Last week, the shocking news arrived that, amid the allegations about Kevin Spacey, the actor would be replaced by Christopher Plummer in Ridley Scott‘s upcoming film, All The Money In The World, as J. Paul Getty. All this while keeping the original Friday, December 22 release date. Unsurprisingly, this will cost a pretty penny.
Early estimates have pegged that between reshoots, sending out new marketing material and the additional post-production work, the move should cost Imperative Entertainment north of $10 million. Production is set to last eight to ten days, and that fee will also include Plummer’s salary, plus additional pay cheques for actors Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Williams having to return to reshoot scenes.
Reportedly, the studio is not considering a heavy amount of digital work, as there was the suggestion that Plummer could have filmed his scenes in front of a green screen and had them spliced in in place of Spacey, but that was naturally a difficult task, and considering the role of Getty isn’t that large, Scott thought it was easier to simply reshoot the scenes entirely.
The fact that Danny Boyle‘s FX show Trust – revolving around the same true story – is being released in January is the real spanner in the works here. If that show didn’t exist, the release date for All The Money In The World could be pushed back to give Scott and crew plenty of time to shoot, edit and redistribute posters etc., but the presence of that show forced Imperative Entertainment’s hand.
Thus, Scott and everyone involved in the film are on the tightest of schedules, and are still hoping for an awards run, even though screeners of films are usually sent out to Academy members to watch by now. The studio is confident the film can be done by Friday, December 15 – a week before official release – to show to voters before getting a wide release a week later.
It might be tough for the film itself to live up to the drama behind the scenes.
#Peace.Love.AllTheMoneyInTheWorld
