FACE/OFF: Christopher Plummer to Replace Kevin Spacey in All The Money In The World.

As of now, director Ridley Scott plans is to keep the film’s Dec. 22 release date.

In a monumental and expensive move, Ridley Scott will remove embattled actor Kevin Spacey from his finished thriller All the Money in the World just weeks before the film’s release.

Christopher Plummer will now play J. Paul Getty in the story about the infamous 1973 kidnapping of his grandson, 16-year-old John Paul Getty III.

The movie, which was pulled as the closing night screening of AFI Fest at Scott’s insistence, is scheduled to hit theaters on Dec. 22 via Sony’s Tristar. As of now, the release date remains unchanged despite the re-shoots but insiders say that if anyone can pull off re-shoots and still make the holiday release date, it’s Scott.

Shades of Francis Ford Coppolla swapping out Harvey Keitel and replacing him with Martin Sheen during Apocalypse Now. As with that film, movie obsessives will have a field day wondering which long shots and shots of the back of “Getty’s” head are Spacey and which are Plummer.