With this past weekend’s box office the lowest since September 2008 — and box office takes as a whole lower this year than expected — studios are starting to tighten the purse strings in ways we haven’t seen in a while. First Disney shut down production of Lone Ranger because of a runaway budget, and now according to Deadline Legendary has similarly put its Biblical epic Paradise Lost on hold because of budget concerns. The film, which is set to star Bradley Cooper as Lucifer and Benjamin Walker as the archangel Michael, was originally budgeted for $120 million but has reportedly gone over budget by 10-15%.
Considering the film — based on John Milton’s epic poem about the Fall of Man and the war between heaven and hell — is expected to utilize a tremendous amount of special effects, this is a very bad sign. Production was expected to start in January, but it’s likely that these issues will push production back until spring 2012 at the earliest. Hopefully this means the production will still be able to hold on to Cooper, who tends to have a pretty full schedule.
If the movie gets back on track, Paradise Lost will be directed by Alex Proyas (I, Robot) and features Lawrence Kasdan (writer of Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark) as one of the many writers of the screenplay.
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