Ridley Scott has broken his silence about his decision to re-shoot the entirety of his new movie All the Money In the World, replacing the disgraced Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer in the lead role.

When the news broke in late October that Spacey had been accused by numerous men of inappropriate sexual conduct, the British director was forced into a difficult decision. He announced back on November 8th that he would re-cast the role of oil magnate John Paul Getty III with Christopher Plummer in the role instead of Spacey, shooting all of his scenes again while still intending to honour the December 22nd release date.

It’s a daunting task, but Scott told Entertainment Weekly on Wednesday (November 29th) that everything was on course to meet the original deadline.

Ridley ScottRidley Scott is re-shooting all of Spacey's scenes with Christopher Plummer instead

Scott called back the film’s co-stars Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg to London and Rome to re-shoot the scenes that involve them during the Thanksgiving week. He went to these lengths because, as he explained, he felt leaving Spacey in was simply not an option.

“I sat and thought about it and realized, we cannot,” he told the interviewer. “You can't tolerate any kind of behaviour like that. And it will affect the film. We cannot let one person's action affect the good work of all these other people. It's that simple.”

More: Kevin Spacey to be edited out of an entire film, to be replaced by Christopher Plummer

Although he said that Spacey never called to him to apologise about the situation, Scott said that it wouldn’t have made a difference – and, happily, he had had Plummer on his shortlist for the role of Getty in the first place.

About whether he could get the project re-done in time for TriStar’s scheduled December 22nd premiere, he replied “F***ing right… Because I know I can deliver. I move like lightning… After a while you learn to trust and listen to your intuition. And I listen to mine. I trust it.”

Michelle Williams told the same publication: “When this idea was hatched, I immediately started to feel better… This doesn't do anything to ease the suffering of people who were all too personally affected by Kevin Spacey, but it is our little act of trying to right a wrong. And it sends a message to predators — you can't get away with this anymore. Something will be done.”

More: ‘Alien: Covenant’ reviewed