By George Robbins
It seems as though Disney, like many other companies, are going to have a rough time ahead of them due to the spike in coronavirus cases. For them, they have been losing a lot of money due to their parks being closed and not having their parks opened up stateside is still hurting them. They had planned on opening up both Disney World and Disneyland in California by the middle of July, but it seems that this will not be the case moving forward. They tried taking every precaution they could in order to be able to reopen the parks, but it seems like that will simply not be enough of a difference. Thus, it appears Disneyland will not be able to open when they originally said it was going to.
Disneyland in California is a very frequented amusement park that sees a countless number of guests walking through the gates on a regular basis. Normally this is considered a good thing but now, with the amount of people who are still getting sick and the number of cases rising instead of falling like people hoped for is causing concern for the public. The park was originally meant to reopen its gates to the public on July 17th pending approval by the state government. There was talk when they first made the announcement that there would be too much risk in reopening the park this early with so much going on and that worry seems to now have a basis.
In order to combat the rate at which the virus is spreading, parks were shut down, and now that businesses are reopening, there was hope amusement parks would open again as well. However, due to a number of different reasons people accelerated the spread of the virus causing a spike in cases that is keeping that from happening. The reopening of the park is going to be put on hold just like most other things in the state of California right now because there is no telling how dangerous it could be to open up the park again. Governor Gavin Newsom had no choice but to implement additional safety procedures after the recent spike in cases. This included the approval of the park being denied by the state government until further notice.
Although Disneyland in California will remain closed longer than anticipated, the government and Disney are staying in constant contact. So as soon as the state will allow them to reopen, they will make the announcement as to exactly when they will do so. All of this is coming after they had just announced the reopening date and the measures they were taking to try and keep people safe. One of the biggest ways that they planned on doing this was with the park pass system which would limit the amount of people allowed in the park at one time. Hopefully the number of cases doesn’t rise exponentially over the next couple of weeks, but if it does, then it will be a long time off before they are able to reopen to the public.
By George Robbins
Disney has had their hands full ever since this pandemic began back in the middle of March due to how large the company is as a whole. They’ve had to shut down their parks and delay many of the films that were meant to come out under the company name or one of the outside studios handling their films. On top of having to shut down parks and delay films, they have had to make sure that their new streaming service was properly managed in order to keep people entertained while they’ve been stuck in their homes. Now that July is approaching fast, they have their plans set up to allow them to reopen their parks to the public and it seems like their movie release dates are cemented in place. However, problems have arisen recently that make it seem as though they are going to have a harder time than originally thought.
The Disney Parks reopening their gates to the public has been a source of some criticism over the past few weeks due to a spike in overall Covid cases. Disney has already opened their Honk Kong Disneyland park on June 18th and their Disneyland Shanghai Park on May 11th, but this was possible because that part of the world has been dealing with the virus longer than we have and they haven’t had a spike in cases. As of now the plan involves the opening of Disney World and Disneyland in California by the middle of July with restrictions. There have been a lot of people who do not want this to happen right now, but Disney assured people that their new park pass system will help keep people safe. They will be opening the parks at Disney World a few days after one another and will have all of them opened relatively quickly.
Disneyland Paris has its own plan to reopen the park in phases in conjunction with the park pass system to limit people coming into the park. This is the idea behind what the parks stateside plan on doing, but there is no guarantee it will work as intended and this is a risk a lot of people do not want to take. The risk involved with opening up these parks again is similar to the risk that is currently plaguing movie theaters that are trying to open up again. Many movies, even ones that were meant to release later this year, have been delayed because of all of the new cases. This presents a problem for Disney who have a premiere that is meant to be coming up soon in July. Their movie ‘Mulan’ is supposed to have its premiere on July 24th in theaters, but now the question is if they will change the date.
It wouldn’t be all that difficult to understand if they decided to delay the release date of the movie, but the current release date gives them an edge in the market. As of now, the only two blockbuster level films that are set to premiere in July are ‘Mulan’ and ‘Tenet.’ While ‘Tenet’ was meant to be the first film that was, according to Christopher Nolan, supposed to bring people back into theaters, Warner Bros. delayed the film two weeks so it now has a July 31st release date. This means ‘Mulan’ is now the film that can be seen in all theaters first when they reopen in the middle of July, but the question is if it is worth it for them to release it. With the number of cases gradually increasing as time goes on, they may just end up delaying the film again.
By George Robbins
There has been a lot of news lately in regards to movies that haven’t really started their production process yet moving forward anyway. This is in regards to getting scripts for films ready and getting casts set up to start production as soon as possible. Not much else was able to be done because of the pandemic which led to a lot more pre-production work being done in the mean time to get things ready to move forward when the time comes. Some productions are now able to start moving forward because there are rules in place which allow production crews to start working on their projects again. These new guidelines are a bit difficult to maneuver around given the fact most of it has to do with distancing, but they do allow movies to be worked on again.
Many new films were announced that they were going to be starting production sooner rather than later recently such as the ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ movie or the ‘Mallrats’ sequel. Another film that people were not sure was really happening or not was another film for the ‘Scream’ franchise of movies. After the death of Wes Craven, no one knew whether another film for the series would be worked on or not and it even became slightly controversial. Many, including the cast, felt like it just wouldn’t be the same type of movie without Wes Craven working on the film. No one was really ready to sign on to the new sequel being done by filmmakers Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin who took on the directorial duties. That was, until they said that the piece of media they had in mind would honor the original work done by Wes Craven for the franchise.
Not too long after they made this bold claim, an announcement was made that David Arquette would be returning to reprise his role as Dewey Riley. Not much else is currently known about the casting as Neve Campbell hasn’t really confirmed whether or not she wants to reprise her role as Sidney Prescott in the upcoming film. It is a tough decision for a lot of the cast because Wes Carven really did have his own style when it came to the creation of these films. There is no guarantee that the film will end up like the other films he worked on, but there is hope that it will be something worthy of the franchise. This puts a lot of pressure on the shoulders of the new directors in the coming few months as they prepare to start production.
‘Scream 5’ is set to start production by late summer in North Carolina with casting to be revealed over the course of the next few weeks. This will give us an idea as to who we will be seeing perform in the movie and how similar it will really be to the other films. The hope is that by starting production late this summer, that they will be able to have a 2021 release date set for the movie. With the number of delays that are currently happening due to a spike in virus cases, there is no guarantee that this will come to fruition. If they do manage to release the film when they want to, then it will release 10 years after the last film which was the last one directed by the late Wes Craven. Fans of the franchise have a lot to hope for moving forward and we will soon know if it is worth the wait.
By George Robbins
With theaters the way they are right now, it is no surprise that people might feel a bit out of place if they were in the mood to go out to a theater. Most theaters aren’t even opened up right now because they are one of the last types of businesses that states are allowing to open up. This is for good reason as they get a large amount of foot traffic and often times aren’t cleaned properly to stop the spread of infection. There are still theaters that have opened their doors and they did manage to see some form of consumer base during this past Father’s Day weekend. Though they don’t have any new content to show anybody, this hasn’t stopped them from opening their doors to the public and bringing in some kind of money.
The problem that we see going forward is the fact that no one knows how they should be behaving in public and it’s only creating more of a health risk. Theaters have apparently got their guidelines set up for when they reopen their doors for the general public to return to them. Many chain theaters, including those owned by AMC, will be reopening their doors wherever possible by the middle of July. This has a lot of people concerned as to whether they truly have any idea as to what it is they are doing or must do in order to allow people in their doors. On top of the theater following restrictions, viewers must also know what they are doing in order to follow through on the social distancing order.
Theaters are aware that they must strongly enforce the limited capacity rule if they wish to stay open due to the new health guidelines. The new limited capacity rules require that no more than 25% or 100 people, whichever is lower, are allowed in the theaters at once. All of this is to enforce the social distancing rule which is still the biggest way of preventing the spread of the virus. The question for many people who decide to go to the theater is how exactly they are supposed to follow the new rules. Also, what is the best possible way to orient yourself in order to follow the rules and watch the movie like you wanted to watch it. Fandango is doing their best to help with that now.
In order to help get people back into theaters to watch movies, Fandango has launched new features and services to help people out and to keep them safe and informed. Among the new features are options to find nearby theaters that are opened, a way to check new theater policies, a contactless way to purchase tickets, contactless ticket entry for theaters, and, in their words, a worry free refund and exchange policy. With all of this in place, it makes it much easier for the general public to find what it is they are looking for. This also makes it easier for theaters by giving people the opportunity to do everything online and get people through the doors quicker, preventing lines and hopefully drawing more people to theaters. We will know within the next month whether it was worth them doing this or not when the remainder of theaters hopefully open without issue.
By George Robbins
There have been plenty of discussions recently about movies that are meant to hit theaters this year. The biggest issue currently being discussed is the fact that many have had their release dates pushed back. Even movies that were meant to release later this year like ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ have had their release dates pushed to some time next year. This has become a cause for concern for many different production companies that want to get their movies out there. When will they be able to release their movies and will they even get as many people watching their movies as they hope they will.
Jason Blum is the head of the eponymous Blumhouse Productions movie studio and the producer for many horror films in this generation. This past decade has seen a lot of his films becoming box office hits due to his movies being low cost compared to any other horror films. This has resulted in Blum being able to get his hands on a couple of films that other companies have given up on or sequels that no one imagined they would see. He has even said recently that the ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ movie that his company was handed in 2017 is still moving forward.
Blum has a big release coming up soon that he is really hoping won’t have to be delayed which is ‘Halloween Kills.’ It is meant to be the sequel to the 2018 hit movie ‘Halloween‘ which is, in itself, a sequel to the original film of the same name. The release of that film was one that was a surprise to many because no one was sure if the film would be as good as the original with the budget it had. It ended up being a massive success which allowed Blum to move forward with the sequel and his plan to make a trilogy out of it. As of now, the sequel is going to premiere later this year to the public and hasn’t yet changed its release date at all.
With the most recent spike in coronavirus cases, many production companies chose to push back the release dates for their films. Even dates that were set for late this year have moved into 2021 due to studios being worried about theaters getting business. This past Father’s Day weekend those theaters that were opened managed to drum up some business and the Box Office had some numbers on it for the first time in months. Hopefully this gives studios some incentive to keep their release dates and it makes Jason Blum hopeful that ‘Halloween Kills’ will keep its release date. At current, all we can do is wait and see how things turn out and if this all holds true.
By George Robbins
Horror movies are having their own type of resurgence over the past decade that are making people appreciate them again. One of the biggest contributor’s to this resurgence of horror films to the world is the Blumhouse production company run by the eponymous Jason Blum. They are responsible for most of the new age of horror cinema which made the genre step back into the spotlight. There have been horror films over the years since the slasher age of horror films which have made horror fans giddy with excitement, but an everyday person would not be interested. The newest era of films have some sort of thriller element to them which makes it possible for more people to get into the films they are meant to watch.
Blum has created a name for himself due to the wide variety of horror and thriller films that have been made under his company’s supervision. Not only the wide variety of films that have been made, but also the fact that the films have been low budget, high return films that have made his company a lot of money over the years. While not every film that has been made since the company started working on films have been well received, this hasn’t changed the fact that their films are generally box office success stories. They always make way more than they cost to make which is usually a few million dollars. Most people think that budget can make or break a film, but his company proves that this is not really true.
Although the pandemic has currently halted many productions, there are still films being worked on in other ways such as script writing and getting production prepared. Blumhouse is currently working on a couple of different films that have been in development, and most recently Jason Blum has said that the film adaptation for the game ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s‘ is still moving forward. The movie has been in the works since it was initially planned back in 2015 and is still moving ahead even now. It was originally picked up as an idea for a film back in 2015 by Warner Bros., but in 2017 it was handed over to Blumhouse Productions to work on. Like other films that Blumhouse has under their belt that people are worried aren’t being worked on, the movie is still being given some kind of focus.
The ‘Five Nights’ game series has become one loved by countless horror game aficionados that have found the plot of the series to be quite complex. The creator of the games, Scott Cawthon, has created a massive and diverse universe that is now perfect for a film to be made about it. There is murder and mystery as well as straight up terror found throughout that series of games and it makes for an interesting narrative to follow in a movie plot-line. The overall sense of dread found throughout the games means that Blumhouse might just be able to capture the spirit of the games and according to Jason Blum, we could be seeing it come out some time in the not too distant future.
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