It's been said before that the upcoming movie 47 Ronin is in trouble, but now it seems that things have gotten much, much worse. There are now reports that Carl Rinsch, who has been serving as a director on the project, has been removed from the editing room by Universal and that now the studio is working to try and save the film, which has seen its budget balloon up to $225 million. Donna Langley, who is a Universal co-chairwoman, is now overseeing the production.
According to The Wrap, the studio has already been doing reshoots, starting in late August, and it is said that they have added "a love scene, close-ups and individual lines to boost [Keanu] Reeves' presence." The reshoot schedule was delayed by the London Olympics (they are shooting in the UK) and Reeves' planned directorial debut Man of Tai Chi. They shot for about a week.
Hints at the troubled production began in April when the film was moved from November 2012 to February 2013, and then it got pushed again last month all the way to December 2013. The news source says that reshoots are a fairly regular thing in Hollywood now, but that the production budget was just getting out of control to the point that the studio had to take the reins away from Rinsch. They have also reportedly halted some of the visual-effects production, "shrunk the staff and only produced what it knew would make the cut." Part of the reason Universal was so worried about the movie is because they took an $80 million loss on Battleship earlier this year.
An unnamed Universal executive has said that the production hasn't gone beyond its original $175 million budget, despite the fact that the reshoots were done. It is said that Rinsch, who is directing his first feature, simply, "buckled under the pressure." In accordance with Directors Guild of America rules, Rinsch was kept around during the reshoots and then dismissed from the project.
47 Ronin is based on a screenplay by Chris Morgan (Fast Five) and Hossein Amini (Drive), and tells the story of a band of samurai in the 18th century who wish to avenge the death of their master. In addition to Reeves the film also stars Tadanobu Asano, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Rinko Kikuchi.
