If you’ve been following the news in Hollywood, chances are you’ve heard of a movie called All the Money in the World. Directed by Ridley Scott, it tells the story of a hostage situation involving a child, one whom his wealthy grandfather refuses to pay to release. By all accounts, it’s a middle-of-the-road thriller, one that will be remembered more for the drama surrounding it than the movie itself.
Here are 10 crazy facts about All the Money in the World.
Actor Replacement
Just a month and a half prior to its release, sexual assault allegations against Kevin Spacey were levied. The filmmakers decided to replace him in the movie with Christopher Plummer, causing extensive reshoots. Plummer, according to Scott, was his first choice for the part—and already had the script.
… At a Significant Cost
Those reshoots cost the studio (TriStar Pictures, a Sony subsidiary) approximately $10 million and required big-name actors Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg to return to Rome for a rushed shoot.
Skinnier Wahlberg
Wahlberg had lost a significant amount of weight to film another movie, so when he was called back for the reshoots his costumes had to be adjusted to compensate for that.
Ridley Scott Has Dealt With Actor Replacement Before
This is not the first time that Scott has had to improvise with the departure of an actor. For 2000’s Gladiator, CGI was used to recreate approximately two minutes of footage for Oliver Reed, who died of a heart attack during filming. This cost the studio just over $3 million.
Related Actors?
Christopher Plummer, taking over for Spacey, now plays the grandfather to a character played by Charlie Plummer. Unfortunately, the two are not related.
Quick-Release Trailer
A trailer featuring Christopher Plummer was released on November 29, 2017, just over a week after Plummer started work on the film—and on the final day of the reshoots.
Kept in the Dark
Christopher Plummer was not shown any of Spacey’s performance for the character, deciding instead to let him go his own direction with the role.
No Spacey Cut … Probably
Ridley Scott has said in interviews that we will not see the original cut of All the Money in the World. Ridley Scott is also one of the most frequent directors to release Director’s Cuts of his films on home video.
Delayed Premiere
Because of the allegations against Spacey, All the Money in the World was pulled from its planned premiere at AFI Fest on November 16, 2017. It eventually premiered on December 18, 2017, just weeks after all the reshoots.
Made Release Date
Despite all of the reshoots, which reportedly consisted of 22 scenes, the film was released on its scheduled date, December 25, 2017.
