Deadline:
The big-budget film Paradise Lost, which was slated to start shooting in January but was pushed till early summer, has been scrapped, I’m told. The epic-sized Alex Proyas-directed film about the battle between good and evil inspired by the John Milton poem was to star Bradley Cooper as Lucifer, Benjamin Walker as the archangel Michael, Diego Boneta playing Adam and Camilla Belle Eve, with a host of other actors lined up for the action epic.
I am so disappointed.
They apparently had to cut their losses, though. It was just going to cost too much and they didn't exactly have the technology for everything they wanted to do.
As for spending money on actors, this was never greenlit. That means they don't have to pay the talent.
This practice came about so studios couldnt weasel their way out of talent due to such things as not being used as much as originally intended, cutting them from the film, firing them, etc.
The catch here is that that clause only applies if the movie goes into production and thr actor shows up for work. In this case, it was never greenliy thus never went into production. Basically, it never opened for business so to speak. As such, since the talent was never obligated to show up, the studio isnt obligated to pay.
Of course this works a bit different for some types of talent. For example, writers do their work during preproduction. Thus even if it's never greenlit, they still get paid for the work they already did. As such Legendary is still out plenty money due to preproduction costs.