When we think about movie disasters, we usually associate them with events after the cameras start rolling. We think of personality clashes between actors, budget constraints, directors walking away and a ton of other things that could go wrong. But sometimes a movie manages to find trouble before anyone has even shouted “action.”
That appears to be happening with Reset, the upcoming thriller starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Only a few months ago, everything seemed to be moving along rather nicely. The movie had Chopra and Orlando Bloom as its leads, Matt Smukler directing, producers attached and international sales underway. The production originally planned to begin filming around this time. Fast-forward a few months and things look considerably different. According to Page Six, Bloom has reportedly walked away from the project completely, exiting not only as Chopra’s co-star but also as an executive producer. And unfortunately for Reset, losing one of its leading actors isn’t the only problem currently surrounding the production.
Smukler has also reportedly left the director’s chair, with The Meg 2 second-unit director James Madigan now attached to direct. Reports suggest the production was dealing with continuing script changes and insufficient preparation time as its intended filming date approached. That’s quite a lot of resetting for a movie called Reset. But jokes aside, what I find fascinating about this story is just how quickly something that appears ready to go can suddenly find itself without some of its most important pieces.
From the outside, making a movie can look relatively straightforward, right? Find a script, hire some actors, choose a director and start filming. But before a camera ever starts recording, hundreds of moving parts have to line up almost perfectly. Then there are those other bits: financing, locations, actor availability, insurance, distribution agreements, production schedules and countless other details that filmmakers must somehow fit together to complete the puzzle. Change one important piece and the entire puzzle starts to shift. Change several at once and it’s a recipe for disaster.
Bloom’s departure is particularly significant because producers originally built Reset around pairing him with Chopra. The thriller follows a married couple whose lives unravel after the husband wakes from a coma following a suspicious accident with no memory of the previous day. His wife begins helping him reconstruct what happened, and what do you know… secrets surrounding their marriage start to emerge. When the project was announced, Smukler specifically spoke about the chemistry he wanted between Chopra and Bloom, describing a relationship built around attraction and mistrust.
Now one half of that relationship is gone.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Reports indicate that producers are considering three actors to replace Bloom, with Chopra expected to have input into the decision. So the movie is still very much alive. But finding another actor can be tougher than you think. There are all sorts of things to consider, with a key one being availability. It definitely isn’t as simple as scrolling through Hollywood’s contact list and asking who’s free on Monday. Then there’s the cost of bringing in a new actor, which can become quite problematic for an independent movie. Recognisable actors help producers secure international buyers, distributors and financing because their names carry value in different markets. Fortitude International had already taken Reset to Cannes for international sales. Bloom and Chopra weren’t simply two actors playing a married couple. Their combined international profiles were part of the package being sold.
Suddenly take Bloom out and potentially parts of that equation need recalculating as well.
And this is where we sometimes forget how incredibly fragile movies are before production begins. We see the finished product and either love it or hate it. But we never really think about the number of things that had to go right for that movie to exist. Actors have schedules. Directors have creative visions. Investors have expectations. Distributors have requirements. Scripts change. Budgets change. Locations disappear. And everybody involved needs to somehow arrive at roughly the same place at roughly the same time with enough money left to actually make the thing. It’s almost surprising any movie gets made.
Reset hasn’t reached disaster territory yet. Current reporting suggests producers remain committed to moving forward and finding another leading man, although its original production timetable appears to have gone out the window. There are also reports suggesting filming could potentially move into 2027, although that hasn’t been officially confirmed. A troubled production doesn’t automatically mean a troubled movie. Hollywood history is full of films that survived casting changes, director replacements, rewritten scripts and production chaos before becoming successful. Sometimes the person who wasn’t originally supposed to be there ends up becoming impossible to imagine the movie without.
So Reset could still emerge from all of this perfectly fine. But right now the title feels almost ridiculously appropriate. I mean, you have to see the humour in a movie called Reset that requires a new director, new leading man, new production schedule and possibly a new start date.
At this point, Reset isn’t simply the name of the movie.
It appears to be the production strategy.
