The writing was seemingly on the wall last December when the film was put on hold, but it looks like the end of the road for Alex Proyas’ epic take on Paradise Lost, which has now been scrapped by Legendary Pictures.
Deadline reports that the movie, which was inspired by John Milton’s poem and had a script featuring input from several writers including Exam's Stuart Hazeldine, had simply reached a budgetary size and scope that made the studio nervous and pushed the likely cost to a point where it simply wouldn’t be possible.
It’s not tough to see why Lost was going to be so expensive: the visual effects required to performance capture angelic battles and Heavenly visions were simply too much for the producers to factor in, even as delays were called and the finances were reworked. It’s a big gut punch to the crew, which had already started to assemble in Australia even though the movie hadn’t technically yet gotten a green light.
The film was to have starred Bradley Cooper, Benjamin Walker, Diego Boneta, Camilla Belle, Casey Affleck, Calla McAuliffe and Djimon Hounsou, but they’re all free to pursue other work now. Cue Warner Bros. feverishly pencilling in time for Cooper to shoot The Hangover 3.
Will it come back to life? Well, it’s been down before and come back, so anything is possible. It might just need to wait for the effects tech to catch up (and therefore the costs to drop)…