In the wake of the sexual assault allegations that have been directed at Kevin Spacey over the last few weeks, it was announced two days ago that director Ridley Scott has decided to remove the actor from his upcoming movie, All the Money in the World. Christopher Plummer has been hired to play J. Paul Getty in Spacey's place, and surprisingly, Sony is still planning on releasing the crime drama late next month. These reshoots will undoubtedly be challenging, but they'll also be quite expensive, reportedly costing over $10 million.
According to Variety's report on the All the Money in the World reshoots, there are several factors responsible for such a high cost. First off, an actor like Christopher Plummer fetches somewhere between $250,000 and $400,000 for this kind of supporting role. Like Spacey, Plummer is only expected to shoot his J. Paul Getty scenes over eight to ten days. However, rather than shoot Plummer in front of a green screen and then place him into pre-existing footage, Ridley Scott and the producers believe it will be more "economical and effective" to simply recreate those scenes with Plummer's Getty interacting with other actors. Filming is expected to commence within the next two weeks so that this altered version of All the Money in the World is ready to go by December 15.
But wait, it doesn't end there. On top of Christopher Plummer being brought on to All the Money in the World, Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg are also returning for the reshoots. Both actors previously had two weeks of reshoots scheduled as per their contracts, but if these new reshoots exceeded that original amount, then they will be paid their pro-weekly rate. Add in the money that will be poured into new marketing materials, and spending over $10 million makes sense. It's also worth noting that none of these costs are expected to be covered by insurance.
These All the Money in the World reshoots won't just have a financial cost attached either. One of the reasons Sony is determined to still release the movie next month (aside from wanting it seen before FX's Getty kidnapping miniseries Trust premieres) is so that it can be an awards contender next year. In normal circumstances, voters for these awards committees usually receive screeners in early November. However, the studio believes that enough voters will be able to check out All the Money in the World in December's final weeks. We'll have to wait and see how the final product turns out, but if Sony can successfully pull this off, let alone get accolades afterwards, then it could set a new precedent for major productions looking to make drastic changes when hit with behind-the-scenes controversy. Assuming they're willing to drop all that money, of course
Even with all this new work, All the Money in the World is still expected to hit theaters on December 22. Scan through our 2017 premiere guide to see when this year's other remaining movies are arriving.
