And so, for now, the studio pulls the plug on one of the last films that would have starred Heath Ledger.
http://blog.moviefone.com/2007/03/06/producer-wants-daniel-craig-or-heath-ledger-for-paradise-lost/Producer Wants Daniel Craig or Heath Ledger For 'Paradise Lost'By Monika Bartyzel (Subscribe to Monika Bartyzel's posts)
Posted Mar 6th 2007 2:32PM
Filed under: Drama, Deals, RumorMonger, Religious, Movie News, Cinematical
We've got a million Shakespeare adaptations, and now it is time for a little John Milton. His epic poem, Paradise Lost, is gearing up for the big screen. Well, some parts of it are. A few years ago, novice screenwriters Philip DiBlasi and Byron Willinger were shopping around their adaptation of the poem, which has since been re-written by Stuart Hazeldine. Now, Vincent Newman has bought the script, which will be co-financed by Legendary Pictures. While no cast is yet on-board, he's itching for Daniel Craig or Heath Ledger to play the famous fallen angel named Lucifer. Craig has already kiboshed rumors of joining I, Lucifer, so we'll have to wait and see if this is more up his alley.
Newman has stated: "if you get past the Milton of it all, and think about the greatest war that's ever been fought, the story itself is pretty compelling." The plan is to have "less Adam and Eve and more about what's happening with the archangels." That's right, it's gearing up to not be an epic re-telling of a classic poem, but more of an adaptation that takes out the blank verse and leaves the warring action. The producer is also concerned with the nudity of Adam and Eve, so I wouldn't be surprised if the film becomes just the 'war on God'. Personally, it seems like a good time to challenge that worry, rather than uphold the violence = good, body = bad mentality. Regardless, it's sounding more like an action fanboy re-imagining than a cinematic adaptation.
Scott Derrickson, who directed Hellraiser: Inferno and The Exorcism of Emily Rose might helm the feature, which really secures it as a religious horror/war movie. All of this aside, the hope is to still keep it faithful to theological writings so that, as Hazeldine states: "I wanted to make sure that for the faith audience, I guess, that they will see it more as The Passion of the Christ than The Last Temptation of Christ." That's a bit of a leap, considering the fact that Paradise is not a religious text, but a fictional poem. With so many changes and concerns, I don't see why they don't just make their own story, rather than hacking up a classic epic.
http://worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=21548Bradley Cooper Replaces Heath Ledger as the Devil in "Paradise Lost"Posted: May 5th, 2011 by WorstPreviews.com Staff
Bradley Cooper (The Hangover) is in talks to play Lucifer in a big screen adaptation of John Milton's 17th century poem "Paradise Lost" that will be directed by Alex Proyas (I Robot).
"Paradise Lost" tells the story of the epic war in heaven between archangels Michael and Lucifer, including the latter's role in Adam and Eve's fall from grace. The new film will be crafted as an action vehicle that will include aerial warfare, possibly shot in 3D.
Back in 2007, Heath Ledger and Daniel Craig were in talks to play Lucifer, and Scott Derrickson (The Day the Earth Stood Still) was set to direct.
Cooper is currently also in talks to star in the remake of "The Crow," which coincidentally was also directed by Proyas.
Source: Variety
http://collider.com/paradise-lost-cancelled-bradley-cooper/144107/Legendary Pictures Scraps Alex Proyas’ PARADISE LOST Starring Bradley Cooperby Adam Chitwood Posted:February 9th, 2012 at 12:02 pm
In the climate of budget conscious studios hesitant to gamble money on anything that doesn’t have a “2” in the title, more and more ambitious projects are having trouble crossing the finish line. Universal passed on Guillermo del Toro’s At the Mountains of Madness, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are struggling to get their blended, multi-part film/TV adaptation of The Dark Tower off the ground, and most recently we saw Warner Bros. put their fantasy pic Arthur & Lancelot on hold in order to work out budget issues.
Now you can add Paradise Lost to the list of blue balled titles, as Legendary has pulled the plug. The ambitious adaptation of John Milton’s classic epic poem was to begin shooting in January, but Legendary decided in December to push production back in order to reduce the budget. Now the studio has scrapped the project all together. Hit the jump for more, including why Legendary backed out.
Director Alex Proyas had an ambitious vision for the film, as he planned to utilized motion capture and 3D for the action-oriented adaptation. The cast was impressive, with Bradley Cooper, Benjamin Walker, Casey Affleck, and Dijmon Hounsou all onboard, but ultimately the studio’s decision came down to budget. Deadline reports that the crux of Legendary’s issue was with the enormous amount of visual effects. They attempted to scale back a budget that had crossed the $120 million mark, but in the end it apparently proved too daunting.
There’s no word on whether or not Proyas will shop the film around elsewhere, but one assumes he’ll have to make some considerable creative concessions to get the budget down to a studio-friendly number. Cooper just told Steve a few weeks ago that he hoped to start filming Paradise Lost in June, but alas it’s not meant to be. Personally, I find it depressing to think that studios won’t hesitate to throw money at Grown Ups 2 but are unwilling to go out on a limb for something ambitious. Something adventurous. Something different.
