Universal had spent a reported $20m on the project up to the point it was axed. It’s a film about a world-famous musician, with a high-profile cast and a respected French director.

I guess the author is trying to punch up the movie, but 20 mil for a studio (especially universal) is chump change, like I’m not even sure if that’s enough for a tax write off

Edit: Last year Universal put out “Piece by Piece” (another Pharrell bioptic), it only recovered 10 out of the 16 million they spent. Universal probably was not expecting any better and cut the losses before marketing funding and such.