By Paradise Lost is the greatest poem ever written, covering the battle for Heaven, the hell-bound ruminations of fallen angel Lucifer, plus the creation and original sin of mankind. As far as epics go, it’s the big kahuna and more or less singlehandedly ended the epic poetry genre because there was nowhere left to go. Legendary Pictures, who are producing a movie version directed by Alex Proyas, somehow didn’t realise that putting all this on-screen might be expensive, so the film has now been delayed in order to accommodate budget cuts, reportedly of 10-15% from an original estimate of around $120m.
It’s surely no big surprised that the studio balked a little at the price tag. Pinpointing the movie’s target audience is difficult: it’s a religious story, but not seen sympathetically by the lucrative Christian market due to Milton’s relatively sympathetic portrayal of Satan. Academics will probably scoff at the idea of making a movie at all – and they’d have a point. The talent in place – Proyas, Bradley Cooper, Casey Affleck, Djimon Hounsou – is good, but not exactly top notch. It’s also a tad worrying that the studio aren’t given it the full financial backing it needs. Can’t help but be vaguely, morbidly, fascinated by it all though.
[via Deadline]