It’s only been a couple of weeks since Ridley Scott committed to directing All The Money In The World, yet according to sources close to the production, he already has Michelle Williams, Kevin Spacey and Mark Wahlberg close to signing on the dotted line for the film, which will tell the story of the kidnapping of oil heir John Paul Getty III and his mother’s frantic attempts to convince his grandfather to pay the ransom.
For those who don’t know, it’s a fascinating story – with the 16-year-old Getty being kidnapped in Rome and a ransom note demanding $17 million being delivered to his family. Unfortunately for the kidnapped boy, he’d frequently joked about faking his own kidnapping in order to get some money from his notoriously tight-fisted grandfather. As such, even when they knew he had been kidnapped they didn’t pay the ransom, his grandfather making the hilarious logical argument that if he pays the ransom on this one grandchild then people will start kidnapping the rest of them. Then a severed ear turned up in the mail…
You can read the rest of the story on Wikipedia if you like, but it’s such a strange, convoluted tale that it might be worth waiting for Ridley Scott’s take on it. He certainly seems enthusiastic about the project at any rate, going as far as delaying his adaptation of Don Winslow bestseller The Cartel to fit All The Money In The World into his busy schedule. That’s on top of his announced plans for further Alien films. Scott might be turning 80 later this year, but it’s clear that age isn’t slowing him down one bit.
