US actor Kevin Spacey is to be totally erased from a completed Hollywood film following allegations of predatory sexual behavior against him.
All of Spacey's role in the film All the Money in the World is to be recast and his scenes reshot. The release is expected to go ahead as planned on 22 December.
The role of Spacey, who was late oil tycoon Jean Paul Getty in the film, will be replaced by Christopher Plummer.
All the Money in the World, directed by Ridley Scott, is about the 1973 kidnapping of Getty's teenage grandson.
According to Variety, they released a statement saying that Spacey had shot about two weeks of footage and there were many scenes in the film where he was the only actor on screen.
However, he already appeared in the film's trailer, which was released in September 2017.
On the other hand, Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Williams, who also star in the film, are expected to take part in the reshooting.
The movie has also been withdrawn from the American Film Institute's (AFI) annual festival in Los Angeles later this month.
Actress Valentina Violo, who plays a secretary in Ridley Scott's film, said she had met Spacey at a party held at the end of shooting this summer.
"He was very nice and kind and very human," she told BBC News. "He was enjoying himself drinking, eating, speaking with people."
The Kevin Spacey Fiasco
Spacey's career has spiraled down since actor Anthony Rapp, released a statement on October 30 that says Spacey has allegedly made sexual advances to Rapp.
Meanwhile, US network Netflix has dismissed further production of Spacey's drama House of Cards. The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced it would no longer give the actor a special Emmy award, and his agent and publicist dropped him as a client.
Rapp accused Spacey of trying to seduce him when he was 14 years old.
In response to Rapp's claims, Spacey said he had no memory of the incident and offered an apology.
The claims, spanning from the mid-1980s to 2016, raise further questions about the US actor's conduct in the decades he worked in Hollywood and as artistic director at London's Old Vic theatre.
Since then, several others have come forward accusing him of predatory behavior, including a woman who said Spacey had sexually assaulted her 18-year-old son last year.
According to Spacey's representatives, the actor is said to be seeking unspecified treatment.
It is not uncommon for actors to have their roles recast or their performances adjusted in the case of death, illness and other unavoidable circumstances. Nor it is rare for actors to be replaced before or during production, for a whole range of reasons.
Yet, it is virtually unprecedented for a living performer to be removed from a completed film and have their character recreated by another actor. It is even rarer for that decision to be made so close to a film's release, or in a film whose trailer contains copious footage of the actor concerned.
