Spacey’s demise adds up

WITH Hollywood roiled by mounting sexual misconduct allegations, studios are monitoring Kevin Spacey’s removal from his latest movie as a bold but risky precedent for dealing with scandal-hit talent.

Sony and filmmaker Ridley Scott have been praised for cutting the disgraced 58-yearold from All the Money in the World but, with the release just six weeks away, the move is expected to be costly.

“Sony put people before profits in their decision to cut Spacey from a movie only weeks away from its release,” said Jeetendr Sehdev, a Hollywood branding expert and best-selling author.

“The studio has set a new standard in Hollywood and that’s inspiring.”

Spacey is being replaced by Christopher Plummer for the part as US millionaire J. Paul Getty in the story about the 1973 kidnapping of his teenage grandson John Paul Getty III.

Best known for his role in 1965 as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, the 87year-old was reportedly Scott’s original first choice before he was pressured into picking a bigger name.

If the decision to drop Spacey was straightforward, the race to finish the movie in time for its original release date is more complicated.

Sony and financier Imperative Entertainment had considered nudging the release to 2018, according to Variety magazine.

But they wanted it to open ahead of Danny Boyle’s FX series Trust, also about the Getty kidnapping and due to debut in January.

The movie is also expected to be among the favourites for the upcoming awards season but must hit theatres by the end of the year to have a chance at the Oscars.

It is not entirely uncharted territory for Scott, who was hit by the death of British legend Oliver Reed three weeks before wrapping Gladiator (2000).

Then, the director rewrote parts of the movie to include previously filmed scenes featuring Reed and shot new material with a body double digitally spliced with Reed’s head.

Some 15 years earlier, Robert Zemeckis replaced Eric Stoltz with Michael J. Fox five weeks into shooting Back To The Future, after deciding he had cast the wrong rising star.

While digital trickery is never straightforward, the technology is sufficiently advanced for Plummer to do much of his acting against a green screen, to be pasted into existing footage later.

But it is understood that the preferred option is to bring back co-stars Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Williams for reshoots alongside the stand-in.

The extra eight days required for Plummer to replicate Spacey’s scenes is expected to cost around $2.5 million.