Trailer: Christopher Plummer in Ridley Scott’s All The Money in the World
We are not exempt from mocking some of director Ridley Scott’s latest output, but have to admit we were pleasantly surprised by his reaction to the recent sexual harassment allegations towards Kevin Spacey. Since the actor had been at the center of the promotional campaign around Scott’s new movie All The Money in The World, it looked like the movie was going to get buried as a result. That was disregarding the efficiency of Ridley Scott as a director, who instantly removed all of Spacey’s scenes from the movie, and recast him with Christopher Plummer.
With a release date set for the 22nd of December, that means Scott and Plummer will have had under 2 months to re-shoot and re-edit parts of the film. Plummer is now playing the role of billionaire Jean Paul Getty, who notoriously – as this is a real story – refused to pay ransom when his grandson got abducted. Although reportedly the screen time of Spacey was limited to 10 minutes, this is still a meaty role that needs to be done right to justify the motivation of other characters in the movie.
So how does Christopher Plummer look in the role? Watch the trailer here:
It’s not a surprise at all that Plummer looks like he’ll do a great job in the role. Not only does the man have an amazing track record, he was also the original choice for the role. When the studio wanted someone more famous, the decision was made to put a lot – like… a lot – of make-up on Kevin Spacey. That decision was made in simpler times, before we were hit by one sex scandal after the other.
Scott has also spoken out about his decision to recast the role, saying the following (via NME):
“I sat and thought about it and realized, we cannot. You can’t tolerate any kind of behaviour like that. And it will affect the film. We cannot let one person’s action affect the good work of all these other people. It’s that simple.”
High five, Ridley! For the rest of us: we will find out in December if this is one of the good Ridley Scott movies, or not. At least if it’s not, we know this story will also be the basis of a new miniseries, starring Donald Sutherland in the Jean Paul Getty role.
