Utopia was cancelled by HBO before a single episode even premiered, but why?
According to EP David Fincher, the US adaption of the UK conspiracy drama was scrapped over $9 million, per Collider:
“Utopia was something at HBO that I desperately wanted to do and I thought we had really, really good scripts and a great cast and we were getting ready to do that and you know it came down to $9 million.
Further dissecting Utopia’s budgetary issues, he continued:
In the end, when you actually kind of lay it all out, $9 million in the scheme of things doesn’t sound like a huge discrepancy between what we wanted to do and what they wanted to pay for. But when you cut $9 million out of $100 million, 10% is not 10% in filmmaking. In filmmaking terms, you’re gonna have the same amount of drivers, you’re gonna have the same amount of accountants, you’re gonna have the same amount of costumers, you’re gonna have the same amount of stunt people. The only area that’s going to have to shrink by 10% is the amount of time that you have with the actors.”
Were you disappointed by the pre-cancellation of Utopia? Did the show deserve a chance? Still hoping for another US version of Utopia?
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