Director: Sir Ridley Scott
Production Designer: Arthur Max
Studio: Sony Pictures
Starring: Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer & Mark Wahlberg
Locations: London, UK, Italy & Jordan
Location Brief: 1970s period locations, including London and Morocco doubles in the UK
Scouting All the Money in the World Filming Locations
Working on All the Money in the World filming locations brought me back together with production designer Arthur Max, this time for director Sir Ridley Scott and Sony Pictures.
The film tells the extraordinary true story of the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III and the refusal of his billionaire grandfather, J. Paul Getty, to pay the ransom.
From a location point of view, the brief was equally ambitious. We were looking for period locations capable of recreating the world of the 1970s, with the production filming across London, the UK, Italy and Jordan.
Finding Morocco in the English Countryside
One of the more unusual location challenges was finding a way to recreate Morocco here in the UK.
We eventually filmed at Elveden Hall in Suffolk, using the estate to double for Marrakech.
It’s one of the things I have always loved about location scouting. You can be standing in the English countryside looking at a grand country estate, while trying to imagine an entirely different country, climate and period.
In the hands of Ridley Scott and Arthur Max, that transformation can be extraordinary.
Working with Arthur Max and Ridley Scott
Arthur Max has an incredible eye for locations and production design, and I’ve been lucky enough to work with him on several major films over the years.
On All the Money in the World, the locations needed to feel authentic to the period while also fitting the scale and visual world of a Ridley Scott film.
The Getty story moves through very different environments — from extraordinary wealth and grandeur to the darker world surrounding the kidnapping — and the locations were an important part of creating that contrast.
The Christopher Plummer Reshoots
The film later became part of Hollywood history when Ridley Scott made the extraordinary decision to replace Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer just weeks before the film’s release.
Spacey had already filmed the role of J. Paul Getty, but 22 scenes were reportedly reshot with Plummer in just nine days.
It was an incredible turnaround on a film that was effectively already finished. Christopher Plummer’s performance went on to receive an Academy Award nomination.
The scale and speed of those reshoots remain one of the more extraordinary production stories in modern filmmaking.
Original All the Money in the World Location Scout Photos
Below are some of my original location scout photographs from All the Money in the World, showing a selection of the locations explored during pre-production.
