By George Robbins
Nowadays, the world can be a pretty rough place for just about everybody and it affects everyone differently. The “it” in this case is the coronavirus pandemic currently plaguing the world. Countless businesses have been affected in entirely different ways simply because people can’t be near one another. While some businesses can cope with this situation, there are many, namely in the entertainment industry, that cannot. With movie theaters shut down movies studios have had no choice but to delay their film productions and theatrical releases. Now, the game they must play is when they should release their movies.
There are currently a couple of movies that are vying for the position of first release blockbuster once theaters begin reopening their doors. Theaters, mainly the chains, plan on reopening by some time in July due to the fact that they must adhere to health and safety rules in order to do so. So studios have been working their film release schedules around this time period in order to make their films sell out seats in theaters to make their money back. There is still the major issue of consumer confidence that people need to worry about, since no one will really want to leave their houses immediately after theaters reopen, save for a few people. The question then becomes, “Will the movies that are showing be worth the risk?”
Solstice Studios is definitely trying to answer that question by putting their newest movie out into theaters when they start reopening. Their movie, ‘Unhinged,’ is a upcoming thriller film which stars Russell Crowe in a main role. He plays a character who has a fit of road rage involving a woman he only just met which sets off a deadly game of cat and mouse. The woman is played by Caren Pistorius and the film also stars Jimmi Simpson and Gabriel Bateman. This movie tells a story about the consequences of a seemingly inconsequential action due to something done at the wrong place and time.
Solstice originally had the movie planned as a September release, but they are now trying to be a part of the crowd of studios trying to be first in theaters. Most theaters should be reopened by the beginning of July, and they are trying to take advantage of that fact by making the release date the 1st of July. This is dangerous since not only must they compete with other big movies trying to accomplish the same task, but also the fact that people simply might not want to go to the movies. This is the risk that all of the studios are taking by making their films available in theaters the month that most will be reopening. Simultaneously, they may be a part of the group that helped get people out to the movies in the first place, so it is a wait-and-see scenario.
By George Robbins
As many people have probably noticed by now, while many businesses are reopening or have plans to do so soon, movie productions are another subject entirely. Like the movie theaters the films will be showing in, film productions are going to have a lot of set restrictions to them when they resume. This means that many productions will either take longer to complete or they will have to wait until restrictions aren’t too bad. Many companies thus far have had to push back release dates for their movies all the way into next year due to the fact they aren’t sure when they can continue working on their films.
Many people became happy recently when it was announced that the U.K. would be relaxing a bit on its lockdown restrictions which would allow for the continued production of films. This opened up a series of possibilities for production companies since they could now make decisions about when they can finish their projects for release in theaters. However, it would appear that some movie productions will not be moving forward once the restrictions are eased up a bit, and they will instead be staying on hold for the foreseeable future. Those two movies would be ‘The Batman’ and the next sequel in the ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ franchise.
When the pandemic began, ‘The Batman’ had already started filming before that had to cancel shooting for the film. With the original release date for the movie set for June of 2021, Warner Bros. had to delay the release a total of four months as of right now. ‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ was just getting ready for production to start when everything went south, so they have less to worry about and they can choose any moment to start up again. Even with the relaxing of restrictions they are deciding not to start up their film production again.
Warner Bros. is playing it safe with these two films in order to prevent much worse delays from eventually taking hold of those two films. They are however pushing forward with plans to continue production for the newest ‘Matrix’ sequel. WB wants to ensure that they can efficiently use the resources and talent at their disposal in order to get the film completed in an orderly manner. The other two films they know they will be able to work with on a later times table because the filming for them is much more lax by comparison. If they mess up now and get ahead of themselves they could end up making their delays much longer than they need to be and they could lose a lot of money.
By George Robbins
Not too long ago we found out that the Matrix trilogy would no longer be a trilogy when a fourth film for the franchise was announced. The plot of the film is unknown to the public at large and we are not expecting to hear much about it for awhile yet. The film was only just beginning production when everything went south due to the coronavirus pandemic. When that happened, the filmmakers had no choice but to shut down production and hope that they would be able to start up production again as soon as possible. This situation is a tough one to be in because there is absolutely no way of telling when a good time to start up production again would be.
The ‘Matrix’ franchise is one that captivated audiences the world over for its, at the time, entertaining CGI work. Also, it gave many philosophers something to think about because the Wachowskis, the directors, wanted to make a movie that had a lot of meaning behind it as well. The third film ended in such a way that we would never have expected there to be a follow-up to it. When a movie has finality to it then the only reason a new movie would be made is if there is a new story to tell. Hopefully it will be a story that is worth the long wait since the end of the last film.
From the middle of March and extending all the way up through now and the following months many businesses have had to shut down to prevent further spread of the virus. Not only did businesses have to shut down, but companies that do contractual work like production companies have had to shut down. The reason for that is because jobs like that usually have a lot of people travelling in groups in order to get work done. So movie productions, which are usually comprised of many different people in a relatively moderate space. This being a majorly dangerous way of spreading disease resulted in all productions worldwide being shut down with no resuming dates available yet.
While no real dates are available for when studios can restart their filming productions, it is difficult to get an idea as to when movies will even get to release. These delays are a complete unknown to the film industry since there has never been worldwide pandemic while films were being made. However, even though it is uncertain exactly when most companies will be able to resume filming, some companies have dates in mind for when they would like to continue doing so. Warner Bros. has made the decision that the long awaited Matrix sequel will be able to resume filming some time in July of this year.
By George Robbins
Currently, people in this world are essentially trapped indoors due to the coronavirus pandemic. While some places are slowly starting to reopen businesses with restrictions, the majority of people will not want to leave their homes. The fact remains that the virus is still out there and is still as dangerous as it was before, it’s just that the number of newly infected cases is staying low. Since a lot of people understand the fact that the virus is just as dangerous now as when the pandemic just began, they are not going to leave the house for anything other than necessities any time soon. So with that in mind, streaming services are doing what they can to keep people entertained in order to keep most people from going stir crazy.
Speaking in general, Disney+ launched at a pretty good time which gave them plenty of opportunity to get the site working properly. Everything immediately started going downhill not too long afterwards which gave them an opportunity to test how well their streaming service actually runs. The answer to that is it runs very well and is now one of the main sources of entertainment for people who are stuck inside during lockdown and gives people a way to find some kind of solace during this period of time. That being said, eventually people are going to start getting a little bored and may want some new content. This is where ‘Frozen 2’ comes into the mix.
‘Frozen 2,’ as we all know by now, is the hit sequel to the original ‘Frozen’ film that so many people around the world fell in love with. The awaited sequel to the first film was liked by many as shown by its over $700 million that it made in the box office. An animated film that plays out as smoothly as that is not a film that is by any means easy to make and could take years in development by professionals. Which is exactly what happened with this movie and now we will have an opportunity to see exactly how the film was made and processes it took to be able to make the movie.
Disney has made a behind-the-scenes documentary detailing exactly what they had to do in order to make this animated film. All of the detail that went into how the film plays out and the technology that they used in order to make the movie look so incredible visually. These types of documentaries aren’t really anything new, but this will be one of the first ones to grace the Disney+ platform and will give people something interesting to watch while they are stuck at home. For those wondering just when they will be able to go onto the streaming site and watch the documentary, it will release on June 26th. So if you haven’t seen the movie the documentary is based off, then go watch it before its release.
By George Robbins
The coronavirus pandemic has wrecked absolute havok on everybody’s year thus far. Whether it is an everyday person or a business, everyone has been affected by the virus in some way. For the entertainment industry, it has been especially painful because so much of what they do is based on schedules. Whether it be things like filming dates or release dates for content, companies have had no choice but to delay nearly everything. Now that there are less cases of the virus being reported, lockdowns are being loosened up for everybody.
Lockdowns being loosened up doesn’t mean all that much though because the idea of it all was to prevent new infection cases. So while they are loosened, there are still plenty of restrictions that must be adhered to by businesses and the public. There is no possible way to rush through a pandemic because there is no guaranteed way to protect against the virus other than preventing infection. With this in mind, the restrictions don’t seem all that terrible if we want to go back to enjoying our livelihoods.
Movie and television productions will have some of the worst restrictions due to how that job works, but films that are already finished are a bit luckier. Production companies with movies under their belts have had to made tough decisions regarding release dates for their films. Many movies which were supposed to release, even through the summer, have had to be pushed back. So now that most theater chains plan on reopening in the summer, companies are trying to get their release dates lined up around those re-openings.
One such company would just so happen to be Disney, and the movie they plan on releasing around that time is ‘The New Mutants.’ This movie has been in a sort of development limbo for a long time now, and just when it was getting ready to drop, the pandemic began. Disney then pulled it from the release roster and it was completely unknown just when they would decide to release the film to theaters or if they had other plans for it. Information has finally been released regarding ‘The New Mutants,’ and it appears that Disney has given the movie an August release date. As of now the film has been set for an August 28th release, and we can only hope that it stays this way moving forward from here.
By George Robbins
The world we currently live in is one that has been said multiple times recently to be “unlike any other moment in history.” This is very true considering the fact that this is the first time in the present day that the world has had to deal with a global pandemic. With the pandemic, many things started to become normalized in our daily routines such as wearing masks and gloves out in public and washing down everything that is touched on a regular basis. When things will be able to go back to how they were before, nobody knows, but people are trying to make the best of a bad situation everyday at this point.
All productions for movies and shows were forced to shut down worldwide when the pandemic was first began. Just like all other businesses that closed up at that time, film productions shut down so that they could prevent the further spread of the coronavirus. Many businesses have had no choice but to keep their doors closed during quarantine due to not being essential businesses. Film productions fit into the non-essential category, so they haven’t been able to start up again. However, now that economies are failing, non-essential businesses have been slowly allowed to start opening up again. It now seems as though some productions will also be able to start again.
However, businesses that have been allowed to reopen have to follow strict rules if they want to stay opened. These rules include keeping social distancing rules active, wearing masks and gloves, taking temperatures, and keeping all surfaces cleaned consistently. Movie and TV productions must follow a similar yet differently restrictive set of rules in order to continue filming. For instance, actors will not really be allowed to interact with one another on set even while filming, a much smaller amount of people will be allowed on set, and things like craft services will not be available. Other things are included such as no one being able to leave the filming location during breaks, but this is more of a per production thing.
The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has said that the country will soon be easing on the lockdown a little bit which would allow for things like film productions to begin again. One of the films on that list happens to be DC’s newest iteration of the Batman franchise, simply titled ‘The Batman.’ Many other productions will be able to start up again as well, as long as they follow the guidelines that will be put into place by the country. As of now, the exact guidelines for film productions is unknown but will be available before the country ends up reopening to production companies.
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