While Bradley Cooper as Lucifer sounds like an alluring thought, PARADISE LOST has a share of non-devil related problems it has to sort out before it can actually start being made. The Alex Proyas film is reportedly being put on hold after it surpassed its $120M budget by 10 or 15%.
Why so expensive? Well, it turns out there’s quite a lot of CGI in the film, and integrating it with the live action was going to reportedly take about a year’s worth of post-production, adding to the budget enormously. The film has promised us epic angel battles, but a few of those might have to be toned down in the interest of cost.
Disney pulled a similar move on THE LONE RANGER when that film’s budget passed $250M, and PARADISE LOST is being kept on an even shorter leash it seems. No word on when exactly how long the film is being delayed, but with a full cast ready to go (which includes Benjamin Walker, Diego Boneta, Camilla Belle, Dominic Purcell, Rufus Sewell, Casey Affleck and Djimon Hounso), they had better sort things out before people want to start moving on to other things.
Think it’s possible to trim the budget of a film that’s supposed to be this epic? I’d imagine so, as CGI doesn’t always have to equal high cost as we’ve seen in recent years.