Ridley Scott has proven once again he is the man with all the power after dropping Kevin Spacey from All The Money in the World and replacing him with Christopher Plummer, even though the film is due for release next month.
Related: All The Money in the World News and Trailer
Although the film, in which Spacey was playing the role of J Paul Getty, was already finished, amidst the sexual harassment allegations against Spacey, Scott along with Imperative Entertainments Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas took the decision to reshoot Spacey’s key scenes with Plummer taking over the role which was actually written with Plummer in mind originally, The filmmaker is still aiming for the December 22nd release.
The decision was made after the crew, cast and Sony Pictures all came together in agreement that they couldn’t let the Spacey allegations kill the prospects of the film after everyone had worked so hard on the production. The decision was also made to withdraw the film from the closing night spot at the AFI Festival.
With Plummer’s many years of experience it shouldn’t take the veteran actor long to get the scenes completed as J Paul Getty, the oilman who refused to pay a ransom after his grandson, John Paul Getty III was kidnapped., after all it only took Spacey 8-10 days to film his scenes, Scott is also known for being a bit of a machine in the editing suite, although it will be a tight stretch with all hands on deck they should be able to turn this around in time.
Scott is no stranger to having to reshoot a film, although the circumstances were completely different, he was forced into a re-shoot on Gladiator after the death of actor Oliver Reed.
Whether this is an act based on morals or whether they just didn’t want to scupper their chances as Oscar bait is another subject but this is a bold move from a filmmaker to make with such a limited timeframe to turn it around.
