On paper, 47 Ronin was always something of a gamble. Originally budgeted at around the $175m mark, the movie stars Keanu Reeves, and it brings a Japanese samurai tale to the big screen. The story in question sees a group of warriors looking to get revenge for the death of their master. It all sounds really quite promising.
The movie shot primarily last year, save for some reshoots that have been taking place over the last week or two. But it seems it might be in more trouble than first thought.
47 Ronin's release date has already been put back from its original planned November 2012 bow. First, it was bumped to February 2013, and more recently it was delayed again to December 2013. Furthermore, according to The Wrap, the film’s budget has shot up to $225m (something a Universal spokesperson questioned), and, perhaps more worryingly, its director has been removed from the editing of the film.
The director in question is Carl Rinsch, making his feature debut after a series of acclaimed commercials. But after overseeing the reshoots, which apparently beefed up Keanu Reeves’ role in the movie, the edit is now being overseen by others.
As you would expect, Universal hasn’t confirmed any of this. Furthermore, reshoots themselves are so commonplace on big productions that it’s hard to read too much into them. Yet there’s clearly a problem here, and while it may be a while for the full story to emerge, the continued delays for 47 Ronin do suggest problems. And not small ones.
Hopefully the finished film will come out of all of this in good shape…
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