If you want to see what getting as far away from Kevin Spacey as possible looks like, take a look at what Ridley Scott is doing with All the Money in the World. The crime drama has been seen as one of the final Best Picture contenders to drop this year, with a big marketing campaign for it and the cast, including Spacey, initially planned. Well, any push for Spacey to win was already scrapped, for obvious reasons. And now Scott has made the unprecedented decision to reshoot ALL of Spacey's scenes, replacing him with Christopher Plummer.
That's right, Scott is having Plummer, who was apparently his first choice for the role, replacing Spacey as oil tycoon John Paul Getty. He'll be sharing the screen with co-stars Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg in the story of how Getty steadfastly refused to pay the ransom to save his kidnapped grandson. The shoot should only last a few days, since that's how long Spacey's ran for, and the hope is that this won't dramatically affect Williams who has been getting Oscar buzz for her performance.
To that end, the current plan is to retain the December 22nd release date so that Oscars voters will see it in time. Whether Scott finishes quickly enough for the critic groups and guilds to screen it for their awards is unclear but to me seems highly unlikely. The film has already been pulled from its world premiere slot at AFI Fest. [Deadline/THR]
