Variety reported on Monday that Denzel Washington had dropped out of the Tony Scott-directed Unstoppable, which will co-star Chris Pine (Star Trek). The actor was said to be looking at other projects for the fall.
The trade has updated its story, however, saying that after Washington’s camp made that decision, 20th Century Fox prepared to come back to the table with a different offer that the studio hoped would entice the actor to re-consider his decision.
Washington had planned since April to re-team with Scott, this time to play a veteran engineer who jumps into a locomotive with a young conductor (Pine) to halt an unmanned runaway train filled with a toxic chemical.
Variety adds that after cutting the $107 million budget down to $100 million, Fox wanted it in the low $90 million range. The studio asked Scott to cut his salary from $9 million to $6 million, and wanted Washington to shave $4 million off his $20 million fee. Washington declined.
