Replacing Kevin Spacey in Ridley Scott's new movie will cost millions
- Kevin Spacey will be replaced by Christopher Plummer in the movie "All the Money in the World."
- It will cost an added $10 million-plus to cut Spacey from the movie.
- Director Ridley Scott doesn't plan to use any visual effects to replace Spacey.
It's hard to ignore the title of the movie Kevin Spacey will be cut from: "All the Money in the World" - because it's going to take a lot to delete the embattled actor from it.
Ridley Scott's crime drama about the 1973 kidnapping of then 16-year-old John Paul Getty III and the desperate attempt by his mother (played by Michelle Williams) to convince her son's billionaire grandfather J. Paul Getty to pay the ransom to get him back will keep its December 22 release date despite the sexual assault and harassment allegations surrounding Spacey, who plays J. Paul Getty in the movie.
Or did.
It was announced on Thursday that Spacey would be replaced by Oscar-winning actor Christopher Plummer, even though the movie is already wrapped.
It's a move that is unprecedented in Hollywood, and could cost over $10 million to pull off, according to Variety.
The trade asked around and that's the expected price tag following the expected eight to ten shooting days with Plummer (who will cost between $250,000 to $400,000 to take over the role), which will include Williams and costar Mark Wahlberg to return. Their involvement will cost more if they had already done the two weeks of scheduled reshoots that were put into their contracts. Then there's also the added cost for post production and new marketing material.Scott, and the movie's financiers Imperative Entertainment, feel it's a gamble worth taking, according to the trade, as they want to get the movie out before the FX series "Trust" airs in January, which also looks at the Getty kidnapping.
Surprisingly, Scott will not be doing the Plummer reshoots with digital effects, according to Variety.
When the news broke of Spacey being replaced most believed Plummer would be thrown in front of a green screen and pasted into Spacey's scenes. However, Scott and the movie's producers believe it will be more economical to reshoot the scenes, which are mostly either of shots of the character by himself or with only a few other actors.
Shooting will be done in the next two weeks, according to Variety.
Though there are numerous movies in the past that suddenly had to bring in a new actors in the middle of production for various reasons - Martin Sheen replaced Harvey Keitel in "Apocalypse Now," Michael J. Fox replaced Eric Stoltz in "Back to the Future" - this is the first time an actor has been replaced due to an off-screen scandal.
Spacey was fired from his hit Netflix show, "House of Cards," earlier this month after several men accused the Oscar-winning actor of sexual harassment or assault. The show's sixth and final season has since halted production.