Lawrence & Pratt's Sci-Fi Flick Passengers Finally Greenlit

Passengers - Jennifer Lawrence & Chris Pratt's Sci-Fi Scores Greenlight

Written by Huzaifa Khan on June 15, 2015

These days, casting's become more like a complicated drug trade than anything else, so it's an honest to relief to say that the casting drama behind the new sci-fi flick Passengers has finally been resolved, check out the details after the jump!

Now, for those of you who weren't aware of the drama behind-the-scenes of Sony's project, let's catch you up to speed for a second. It was reported that, while both Jennifer Lawrence & Chris Pratt had been tapped to star in the film, both had laid out much higher offers for salaries, which the studio and acting managers were at odds with for quite a while.

But it looks like that is all water under the bridge at this point, as Sony Pictures’ new motion picture chairman Tom Rothman has greenlighted Passengers, a big-budget romantic sci-fi drama starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt with Oscar nominee Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) set to direct. And thanks to a deal that tied his remuneration to the success of Jurassic World, which broke box-office records with a $524.1 million global opening over the June 12 weekend, Pratt’s fee has jumped from $10 million to $12 million.

Lawrence, on the other hand, an Oscar winner and considered a top star, is getting an exceptional $20 million against 30 percent of the profit after the movie breaks even, say sources.

Considering that this acting team-up will definitely bring in some decent profit, it's worth noting that the actresses' pay is going to end up being more than double of what the primary lead Chris Pratt is being paid.

Passengers is set to begin filming in September so Sony has been under pressure to act. Sources say Rothman wrestled with whether to greenlight it, put it in turnaround or place it with Jeff Robinov’s nascent Studio 8, which is partly owned by Sony and will distribute its films through the studio but has outside financial backing.

The film bounced from place to place before landing at Sony Pictures. At one time, when it was a Weinstein Co. project with Keanu Reeves and Reese Witherspoon, it was budgeted at a modest $35 million. Recently, Rachel McAdams was attached to the project. Ironically, for a time the project was in negotiations for a deal at Warner Bros., where Robinov had been chairman of the film studio — with the budget capped at $65 million.

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