Kevin Spacey is being fully replaced in a movie that is out in six weeks

Ridley Scott’s new movie, All The Money In The World, was all scheduled to be released in six short weeks, to a hopeful fanfare. But the film stars Kevin Spacey, and his name is, well, dirt, currently, so drastic measures are being taken to remove all trace of him from the project.

The film, which stars Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg, surrounds the infamous 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, with Spacey in a central role as his reluctant-to-pay grandfather, J. Paul Getty. However, in the wake of the recent sexual assault allegations made against Spacey, his role has been swiftly recast, and re-shoots will begin immediately to swap out all his scenes.

The actor stepping into his dubious boots is Christopher Plummer, who you may know as the oldest person to ever win an Academy Award in an acting category - he nabbed a Best Supporting Actor gong in 2012 for Beginners.

The $40 million film has a wide release set for December 22, which is extremely close, so the frantic schedule of re-shoots will be a tough business, and will hopefully not impact on the quality of the film, which had high hopes of Oscar success. Unfortunately, many of those hopes focused on Spacey, with an Academy Award-consideration campaign geared towards a potential win for Best Supporting Actor being nixed at the last hurdle.

The first public showing of the film was also meant to be at the upcoming (and very influential) American Film Institute Festival, as soon as on November 16, but this screening has been pulled at the request of Ridley Scott.

This blow to Spacey’s career comes alongside the news that Netflix have dropped him from their popular political drama House Of Cards, as well as other potential and major projects. He has also been shelved by his agents at CAA and booted out by his publicist, Staci Wolfe.

Here’s the trailer for the film - just swap out Spacey’s face for Christopher Plummer’s, if you can:

It’s still set for its December release date - Lord knows how they’re going to manage this one.

(Image: Rex)