I’ve been talking about the upcoming sequel to Bruce Almighty, Even Almighty, for a while now. For those of you who didn’t know about it, Evan was the character in Bruce Almighty who was played by Steve Carell, who now becomes the title character:
The last time we saw Evan Baxter (Steve Carell), he was being tormented by rival Bruce Nolan onscreen, live from their Buffalo TV station. But as time passed and Evan has made up with Bruce, he’s gone onto bigger and better things. Newly elected to Washington D.C. as a congressman, Evan has left Buffalo, New York in pursuit of a greater calling. But that calling isn’t serving in the illustrious ranks of America’s politics, but being summoned by the Almighty himself (Morgan Freeman), who has handed Evan the task of building a new ark, much as Noah did before. With time passing by and his family belittled by Evan’s newfound realization, Evan will have to do the work that God has given him in what promises to be an unusual adventure for a man who just wanted to serve his country, might actually be serving humanity.
Sound great, and I can’t wait to see it. But hold the phone… Seymour sent me this links that suggest something really disturbing…
Apparently, it looks like Evan Almighty could come in costing a whopping $250 million to make. Are they serious?!?!?! The good folks over at ShowBixData (quoting the LA Times) give us this:
Costs have skyrocketed for Universal’s upcoming Evan Almighty, starring Steve Carell, with final expenditures likely to exceed at least $175 million — $250 million, including marketing — the Los Angeles Times reported today (Monday). Such a budget would make it the most expensive comedy in history, the newspaper observed. According to the Times, studio executives have acknowledged that the Bruce Almighty sequel has exceeded original budget estimates but are confident it will eventually be profitable.
WOW! This has totally caught me off guard. I thought that this film would MAYBE cost about $75 million at most. The scale of this project must be a lot bigger than I thought… either that or they just totally lost control of the production costs and wasted a hell of a lot of money.
I don’t know… the idea of a simple comedy costing north of $175 million just seems… I don’t know… wrong. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the hell they spent all the money on.
I was on sight for quite a bit of the filming while they were in VA working. With Morgan Freeman, Steve Correll, Lauren Graham, Wanda Sykes, and John Goodman, just to name a few fairly big name actors, plus everything they went through with shooting delays and all I can understand the high cost of production.
Yeah, the 250 million dollar price tag is the marketing budget, which means its a lie. The films real negative cost plus marketing way lower. A 250 million dollar comedy is a marketing selling point for lots of free press coverage. Its probably about a 40 million dollar movie.
does brad pitt play in this movie? I could have swore I saw pictures of him from the set.
Wow. I’m thinking this is going to be a HUGE bomb. Honestly, I was thinking it would make a bit of money but if it’s really costing this much to make….I think you’d better clear the top of the list of biggests bombs of all time. This will be right up there.
:-(
Hey Bob,
Sorry… but as I posted a couple of days ago, there is no Monday Round Table Audio Edition this week. Monday was Canadain Thanks Giving and we all had commitments.
Mail Bag Wednesday, and Round Table is back next Monday.
Cheers!
~John
It is time for the Aud-i-o E-dition
It is time for the Aud-i-o E-dition
Tell your friends cos the show is really Bitchin’
It is time for the Aud-i-o E-ditionnnnnnnnn
Yeah!
I am wondering how much this film would cost if they went with CGI animals instead.
Apparently its the handlers and 100 or so animals taht is running up the costs.
Ridiculous.
All I am saying is they are hypocrites. As liberals they should use the money to help people.
oh i see….fair enough
the spending on this film is ridiculous but I have no problem with helping the poor and adopting babies to give them a chance at a good life…..
$250 million? Is Chris Tucker doing a cameo? Can you imagine the cost if they decided to do Ghostbusters 3.
Alfie, aren’t liberals alway setting up polices to help the poor, trying to help third world country etc? In Hollywood they adopt African babies blah blah blah. This type of useless spending to me is ridiculous.
If this number is correct, holy shit, what are they thinking?? Do they honestly think they’ll make it back? It’s a sequel!
$250 million?
For that much God himself should make an appearance.
liberals like spending so i don’t get your point chisox….
After seeing one of John’s recommendations(Life Is Beautiful) this weekend, I now have a greater appreciation for low budget film. WOW, what a film, what an ending. The only reason Evan Almighty cost this much is big time ego, nothing else. To think Hollywood calls themselves liberals.
I could use a couple of bucks if they are still handing it out.
LOTR used what $300-$350 Mil for 3 films…..
Unless they get an ensemble then fuck it. Steve Carrell is pretty overrated.
Get Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen in there to talk about who’s gay and there’ll be something funny.
This seems completely insane to me.
Apparently production costs arent the only thing that hollywood has lost control of. It appears they have also lost their grip on reality.
175 – 250 million for Evan Almighty.
The production budget for Bruce Almighty was only 81 million, and that had to buy Jim Carrey.
But then it did take in 484 million worldwide, so who knows…
Are you kidding? I don’t think Titanic or even King Kong even cost that much.
1) That price is absurd.
2) Steve Carell isn’t THAT big of a draw, is he? I don’t know if people went to see 40 Year Old Virgin because of HIM or the premise of the movie. If this flick does cost that much, I’ll go out on a limb right now and predict that it won’t make the money back.
Well, there will aparently be a great flood. Maybe that’s what’s so expensive. But I agree. That price is rediculous for a comedy.