Universal Pictures has now joined Walt Disney Pictures and Paramount Pictures in calling for a temporary stop to its feature productions with Colin Trevorrow’s “Jurassic World: Dominion,” Rachel Morrison’s sports drama “Fling Strong” and Nick Stoller’s Billy Eichner comedy all going on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement released by the studio, they say: “The studio continues to monitor the situation closely and will make a determination on when to restart production in the coming weeks.”
Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible 7,” which was to begin filming in Italy, halted production back in late February, while yesterday Disney announced that it was putting a pause on most of its current feature shoots including “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Rings,” “The Little Mermaid,” “The Last Duel,” “Peter Pan & Wendy,” “Shrunk,” “Home Alone” and “Nightmare Alley”. Sony Pictures currently has no feature productions in progress.
Warner Brothers on the other hand, while having shut down many of their TV productions, are continuing with their three major films in production reports Justin Kroll.
Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” Lana Wachoswki’s “The Matrix 4” and Reinaldo Marcus Green’s “King Richard” still filming as of this weekend. Films in post-production like James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad” are unaffected, while both “Black Adam” and “Aquaman 2” don’t begin filming until August and 2021 respectively.
None of these productions have had confirmed cases of COVID-19 productions, to date the only one has been Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley & Col. Tom Parker biopic with its star Tom Hanks testing positive.
Studios are expected to continue to assess the situation and restart as soon as feasible.
Source: THR
