Bradley Cooper really wants to make Paradise Lost. Attached to play Lucifer since May with Alex Proyas in the director's chair, Cooper actually went as far as to drop out of the remake of The Crow because the two projects were scheduled to be in production at the exact same time. Now it looks like he may have jumped the gun with that decision, as the project has hit a major roadblock.

According to Deadline, Legendary Pictures has brought Paradise Lost to a screeching halt and has postponed production indefinitely. The stop is being likened to what happened to The Lone Ranger earlier this fall, when Disney decided to freeze the movie due to budget concerns. The site says that the project is now being worked on by Legendary executives Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni and producer Vincent Newman to reduce the budget, which was tipping over $120 million (they will be trying to lower that figure by 10-15%). In addition to Cooper the film is set to star Diego Boneta, Camilla Belle, Benjamin Walker, Rufus Sewell, Dominic Purcell, Casey Affleck, Djimon Hounsou, and Callan McAuliffe. Production on the film is now hoping to get going in late spring or early summer.

This had to be at least somewhat expected. I've been saying for over a year that the scale and scope of John Milton's Paradise Lost would make it hard for any direct adaptation to ever actually happen, and now it seems that might actually be true. Alex Proyas has been talking for months about how the battles will be a cross between "300 and Lord of the Rings" and would be a true epic. That's not going to work out so great if Legendary can't foot the bill.