One of the most interesting sounding projects on the horizon was Alex Proyas’ take on the famous epic poem PARADISE LOST by John Milton.

Everybody was cast, including Bradley Cooper as the Devil himself, and everything was in place for an early 2012 shoot. Now Legendary Pictures has pulled the financing citing budgetary concerns. Executives behind the scenes are working frantically to re-work the effects heavy budget which was well over the $120 million estimated.

Truly we live in difficult cash strapped times that are even affecting la la land. We have seen other examples of this in 2011 with production on THE LONE RANGER suddenly halted when the budget ballooned to a staggering $250 million. On the other side of the coin, Guillermo Del Toro couldn’t get AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS made, despite having Tom Cruise and James Cameron on board working with a modest $120 million budget. Then production on RIDDICK was shut down when the producers didn’t have the cash to pay the crew already working on the film, this has since been resolved and the film is back in production.

Without knowing much about the actual plot, an epic war between heaven and hell directed by the visual stylist that brought us THE CROW and DARK CITY certainly sounds like an enticing prospect. With IMMORTALS actually having made money this year it seems unlikely that this would have been a total disaster. Still there must have been something that gave the money men pause for thought. Hopefully the delay in filming means they are just beating a flabby script into place and not compromising on the spectacle. Will this get made? Or will this be one of those great unmade films?

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