Denzel Washington simply said, no thanks, after waiting 3 months for 20th Century Fox to set a budget and a start date for the now ill-fated Unstoppable train movie to be directed by Tony Scott.
Scott and Washington had planned since April to work together again on Unstoppable. This time Washington playing a veteran engineer who jumps into a locomotive with a young conductor (Star Trek’s Chris Pine) to halt an unmanned runaway train filled with a toxic chemical.
The powers that be asked Scott to cut his salary from $9 million to $6 million and wanted Washington to trim $4 million off his $20 million fee. Washington said no thanks.
In the film business, timing and money is everything. The Scott-Washington-John Travolta train tale The Taking of Pelham 123 so far has posted an unglamorous $60 million gross, which doesn’t give Washington much backbone to pull his usual salary. Studios are trying to cut costs wherever they can and films that are not branded as a summer blockbuster are experiencing a tight budget pinch from the studios. Some actors and directors are willing to take pay cuts or defer. Washington declined to take a pay cut and is seeing what else is out there.
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July 14 2009 @ 10:23 pm
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