Director to cut Spacey from a finished film

NEW YORK — Matt Damon walked onto the set of “The Martian” one morning to find Ridley Scott speaking into multiple walkie-talkies and directing an army of camera operators.

“He was shooting four cameras at a time. I was skeptical about it, and each frame is, like, a Ridley Scott frame — beautiful,” Damon recalled in 2015. “I said, ‘God, Ridley, each of those shots is perfect.’ He says, ‘They’ve been perfect for a long time!’”

Scott’s madman feats of efficiency have long been legend. Now, the director is attempting what could be his greatest trick yet, and all of Hollywood is eagerly watching.

Scott on Wednesday summarily decided to cut Kevin Spacey out of the already completed movie “All the Money in the World,” reshoot the actor’s many scenes using Christopher Plummer — the man Scott originally wanted for the role of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty — and still, somehow, make a release date just six weeks away.

It is, to say the least, an unprecedented move that most filmmakers (and studios) wouldn’t even consider. With Spacey suddenly deemed toxic following a flood of sexual harassment and assault allegations, Scott — in one of the more audacious acts of damage control in recent memory — simply opted to be rid of him.

It’s as if the maker of the epic “Exodus” took to heart the Bible’s advice: “And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee.”

Scott even caught the film’s distributor, Sony Pictures, by surprise. But once word got out Wednesday, the studio opted to support the plan. Saying no to Ridley is an unenviable task.