By George Robbins
Plenty of movie productions had been pushed back or halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic and it took a while for them to get back on track. When the pandemic first began, there was really nothing that could be done by the production crews but wait for new health and safety guidelines before they could get back to working on their projects. Unfortunately, members of those crews had to be temporarily let go until they could get those productions back up and running again. Of course, even when productions did start back up again, crews had to be reduced in overall size to be able to follow the new guidelines. Therefore, this situation is just terrible all the way around and it is no surprise that it quickly became difficult for productions to do everything they needed to in one shot to get things done.
Fortunately, there are plenty of movie productions that have managed to make things work, even if it has become more difficult than anyone initially anticipated. The thing about the new production guidelines is that people on a set working on a film aren’t really allowed to stray far from the set while there is a production going on. This is done all in the name of safety as this ensures that people will avoid contact with those who may have actually contracted the virus. Due to the long incubation period of the virus, it doesn’t take long for things to go sideways once someone contracts the virus. Crew members could spread the virus before they even realize that they have the virus and therefore the entire crew could become infected. By shutting down access to everything off set, the chances of getting infected goes down tremendously.
That being said, there is no perfect way of quarantining people to the set and keeping them from interacting with others. When that inevitably ends up happening, people can get infected just like what happened last month on the set of ‘Jurassic World 3.’ Unfortunately for those on set, someone from the crew ended up testing positive for the virus which ended up shutting down their production yet again. Luckily, but surely annoyingly for the crew, the movie was only a few weeks from being finished filming when everything was shut down. This meant that there was a two-week delay for the production crew right at the end of their filming for the movie, but it ended up being fine in the end anyways. They just finished filming for the movie and director Colin Trevorrow has said that he is actually glad for the safety protocols that have been put in place.
Trevorrow has said that those protocols have managed to keep the vast majority of them safe for a while and it kept them all close-knit on set which brought them together emotionally. This means that it was bound to make the work better in the end and he personally feels that the finished product was affected in a good way because of it. With everyone on set effectively on the same wavelength, this meant that everyone was able to understand what people were going through. So with this, we should expect the film to be relatively well put together given how much work was being done on this film. Even while the movie was in its initial shut down phase from when the pandemic first began, we know that work was being done on the production which very few productions were capable of doing given the situation.
Luckily for ‘Jurassic World: Dominion,’ the movie has a fair bit of CGI involved with it which meant that there was plenty of work to be done at home when the pandemic first began. In a another stroke of good luck for that production, they had already filmed a fair number of scenes involving the dinosaurs seen in the film which meant that they wouldn’t be slowed down by having to work from home. They were able to do all of the necessary CGI work involved with the scenes they shot and then when they were given the greenlight to get back to work, that is just what they did. They continued shooting the way that they normally would and have even just managed to finish up their filming. Now they begin the lengthy process of post-production editing and waiting for the film’s eventual release along with the rest of the films that are awaiting release.
One of the films that now stands among the crowd of films awaiting a theatrical release is the third and final entry to the ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them‘ trilogy. This entry was one that was awaited for ever since they first revealed the fact that it was going to be made in the first place. Although a lot of people are now upset with author J.K. Rowling now due to things she has said recently, there are plenty of fans who still love her work. Despite how many may feel about the individual responsible for these works, the works themselves have plenty of fans that we have yet to give up on any upcoming content. Therefore, it is still a pretty big deal now that the third film is going to be coming out in the near future as there was almost no new information in regards to the film within recent memory. The overall plot is pretty much just a carry-over from the last film but there has really been no new information about the film.
‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ was among the productions that was shut down before they even really had a chance to begin when this pandemic first began. For the longest time, they weren’t really able to get back to work because, like with so many other productions, they had to wait and see how things turned out with the new filming guidelines. The result of which was that they were eventually given the chance to resume filming around June when the U.K. decided to allow the continuation of movie productions. While many films immediately got back to work, a lot of the blockbusters that were being worked on instead chose to hold off on getting back to work so soon. The chief reasons for waiting so long to get started again were due to the fact that it is difficult for such huge productions to get all of their required crew and equipment back in place in a proper amount of time.
Needless to say, things were not as simple for them as just picking up the cameras and starting to film once again as they had a lot of set-up required to get back to work properly. As such, it took a little longer for them to finally get back to work and a couple of months after getting the greenlight, they officially resumed filming. With this going for them, it seemed like they would actually manage to make their 2021 release date, if everything else with theaters is going well by then. Unfortunately, good things just don’t seem like they are to last because now, those plans have almost been completely derailed. As many may well know by this point, Johnny Depp, known for playing villain Grindelwald in the movies, has been let go from the production and Warner Bros. is now searching for a replacement actor. This has only further created trouble for the movie and it seems like the release date is once again not set in stone.
With Johnny Depp’s departure from the movie, the studio needs someone new to fill the role that has been left empty since they very well can’t just abandon the character. Grindelwald has been set up to be the main villain character for this trilogy which means that he will be an integral part of the movie. This means that nothing can really be done in the movie without the character, so WB is putting their best foot forward to try and find an actor who will be able to take over for the character. Obviously, it will not be the same as it would be if Johnny Depp maintained the role, but there isn’t really anything that can be done at this point. With WB having to find a replacement actor to fit the role, the movie has yet again had to be pushed back to accommodate for the new production delay. Therefore, the movie is now set for an early July 2022 release date which hopefully won’t need to be changed yet again.
By George Robbins
The film industry has faced many an issue as of late and things don’t seem like they will necessarily be getting better any time in the near future. The same thing can be said about pretty much every other industry out there right now and there is not much that can be done about any of it because it pertains especially to the pandemic as a whole. This pandemic is easily responsible for many businesses being shut down to some degree that is entirely uncontrollable due to the new health and safety guidelines in place for the general public. These guidelines can best be explained as ways for the government to keep people from spreading disease as there really isn’t any other reason for them to exist. With that being said, there is a lot going on in numerous industries and especially the film industry which is shut down in some ways but not in others.
Within the film industry are the countless issues that come along with the pandemic and chiefly among those has been the fact that theaters have been shut down. Movie theaters are the main source of income for movie studios who are putting their movies out for the public to watch and without them, they are kind of limited on how they can release films. In particular, they have had to release their movies to digital to make up for the fact that theaters have pretty much been shut down as of late. Even if theaters were open, they wouldn’t be able to do anything because they weren’t able to bring customers in due to fear from the pandemic. On top of this, not every studio is going with the digital release method as they would rather wait out the pandemic and see how things are going later on.
If later on, movie theaters are actually able to open again and the pandemic isn’t as bad as it is now, then movie studios could try to release their films again. In the meantime, however, there isn’t much that can be done so most films are simply on hiatus until further notice. So if they can’t release any movies, then they are just building up a roster of releasable movies at this point that they can play once things calm down. Movie productions managed to start back up again a few months after the initial wave of the pandemic hit and as a result, a few of them have already managed to finish filming. This inevitably just keeps adding them to the list of films that need to release at some point and that list just keeps getting longer. Of course this can end up working out for the studios as this means they have more time to work on marketing and ensuring there are no issues upon release.
All-in-all, the situation is still pretty annoying for everyone involved and even those who aren’t as the everyday consumer can attest. Therefore, it is pretty easy to see at this point that people are willing to find ways of doing things outside of what would be considered the norm at this point. Despite the ever-changing world that we currently reside in, there are plenty of things which we can sort of rejoice in being the same. Chief among those things is the fact that sequels to old movies are more and more common nowadays than ever before. While those sequels cannot necessarily release to the public any time soon due to the whole theater situation, we will get to see them eventually. This, of course, leads to more people being excited about those films in the long run. Included in those films that we won’t see for a while yet is the sequel ‘Top Gun: Maverick‘ that so many people have been looking forward to.
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ is the much-looked forward to movie that fans of the original ‘Top Gun‘ have been waiting for and it has become host to a series of unfortunate events just like every other movie right now. Like most other movies right now, the movie is awaiting a time frame where it can be properly released to the public and that is still a ways off. Originally, the movie was meant to release over the summer like many other blockbusters this year, but that was inevitably pushed back to late this year. Now obviously, we are into the late part of this year and the movie is now nowhere to be seen as it has yet again been pushed back into the summer of 2021. This means that it has officially been pushed back by over a year which was something that we anticipated but were hopeful that it wouldn’t end up coming down to this in the end.
The movie ended up being pushed back as the movie theater industry started failing due to the various issues it is now facing as well as the fact they haven’t been able to bring in a steady stream of revenue. Thus, summer 2021 is a fair bit of distance that the studio is giving itself so that things can hopefully calm down a bit between now and then. Even if the pandemic is not wrangled in by then, they are at least hoping that there is enough thought going into handling the pandemic as possible so that people won’t be as worried about going to theaters. The pandemic ending or new ideas put out for people to go to theaters are the only two ways we will see this movies, as well as other, eventually hitting theaters. Of course, people want to see this movie as soon as they can because it sees Tom Cruise reprising his role as one of his most iconic characters. On top of this, people want to see just what it is that Tom Cruise can pull off with this upcoming sequel.
As most people are well aware of now, Tom Cruise is insane when it comes to the movies that he stars in because he is known for doing his own stunts. Cruise is almost always trying to top his previous stunts from his other films and has most notably tried to do so a number of times with the ‘Mission: Impossible’ films. Just recently, his ‘Mission Impossible 7’ co-star, Simon Pegg admitted that the stunts that he pulls off scare those on set due to the danger he puts himself in whenever he does them. Not only has he managed to scare co-stars because of the danger of his stunts, but he also doesn’t always come out of those stunts unscathed, making the worry from co-stars warranted. Now, he seems to be going even harder on his stunts and is more than willing to do anything to try and outdo himself in some way, shape, or form. This even includes goin to actual outer space to make a movie instead of just simulating space on a set which is a completely unheard of feat.
Despite the fact that he is literally going to outer space in the near future to make a film, Tom Cruise can still be excited to work on his projects on Earth. ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ just so happens to be one of those projects that he can work on and get excited for even when it is just a sequel for a very old film. It also helps that the movie literally involved him having to be inside of an actual jet flying at extremely high speed which an adrenaline junkie would love. Thus, it isn’t too unreasonable that he would be excited to work on a film like this once again at a time in his life where he is now used to that sort of thing and enjoys it a lot. Hopefully, we can see that joy on the big screen during the summer next year. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that we will get to see the film around then, but we can most certainly hope that this is the case.
By George Robbins
Disney is by far one of the largest entertainment companies to exist in the modern world and there are plenty of projects that they have being worked on. Among those projects are countless productions that have to do with the various shows and movies that they are currently working on and producing for the public. A lot of those productions have to do with the various franchises they have a hold of involving things such as Star Wars or any Marvel productions which most certainly hold the most responsibility when it comes to holding people’s attention. This has allowed them to amass even more of a hold on people over the years as they now have a little bit of something for everyone. One of their other biggest ventures as of late is the remaking of various classic animated films.
The Disney company has made it a habit as of late to try and get as many people as possible to experience nostalgia in an effort to make more money. Starting at about the beginning of the 2010’s, they started remaking a lot of their classic animated movies in a live-action format to bring people to theaters. For the most part, they have managed to be relatively successful when it comes to getting people excited about the upcoming remakes and a majority of their remakes have been a success. It is because of this that they are still rolling out new remakes as time goes on, especially after everything with the recent ‘Mulan‘ remake. While the movie had its issues, and it wasn’t a true remake of the original animation, it has managed to do well for the company as a whole.
With everything in mind with regards to how well their live-action retellings of animated classics are, they have started working in earnest with the movie ‘Cruella.’ For those unaware, this is the villainess of the ‘101 Dalmatians’ movie and this upcoming movie is meant to be the remake for that film. It is highly likely the movie won’t be an exact remake and instead will be based upon it instead with a lot of similarities to the original film. That being said, apparently there is a lot of money going into this upcoming live-action film so it will certainly be interesting to see how things turn out. There will apparently be some very high-fashion scenes going into the film, which is fitting for the story, but there is no telling how it will play out in the film. We will just have to wait and see how things turn out in the end upon the movie’s release.
By George Robbins
This year has been a rough one by many different standards at this point and things aren’t exactly bound to get any better with this ongoing pandemic. The movie industry specifically has had a lot going wrong with it, especially over the past few months and things aren’t necessarily getting any better as time passes. The problem with the way things are working out in the movie industry at the moment is highly proportioned to the fact that theaters are all but shut down at this point. Movie theaters haven’t been able to consistently bring in customers since they had their official re-openings. As a result of this, they have lost a lot of business over the course of the past few months and it has even resulted in the AMC theater company possibly going bankrupt by the end of this year.
So if theaters are truly doing this terribly with everything going on in the world, how is it that studios in the industry are managing to cope with all of this. They are either delaying the releases of most of their films or they are taking the alternative approach which would be a direct-to-digital approach to release. With the latter approach, there is a lot going on that needs to be accounted for and a lot that needs to be recognized by the studio doing it. The big takeaway is that whatever studio decides to go with a digital approach right away will inevitably lose out on the chance to have a theatrical release later on. This is precisely the reason why they will only really be taking this approach with movie that they feel will be better for an at-home experience as opposed to a theatrical one.
Disney recently decided that this would be the proper release method for their live-action version of ‘Mulan‘ instead of waiting for a theatrical release. This was because the movie was first meant to release back in March, but when the pandemic hit, it was pushed back until theaters would be able to reopen their doors to the public. Therefore, the film was given a release date of around the end of July and finally a release date near the end of August. As they got closer to that theatrical release date, they finally made the decision to just release the film for a premium on their Disney+ service rather than await a proper release window. In the end, despite a lot of controversy that ended up surrounding the film, the movie brought in a lot of new subscriptions and a large spike in viewership on the service.
The movie has now been out a couple of months on Disney+ for the premium price of $30 and won’t become a free part of the service until later this year. Even though it hasn’t been long since its initial release, it doesn’t seem like it matters all that much with theaters essentially out of business at the moment. Without theatrical exclusivity, it would appear that the timeline of events surrounding movies can go faster and faster than it ever has before. Therefore it would seem that they can now release movies on Blu-ray and DVD far sooner than they would if the movie had a theatrical release. So as of November 10th, the movie will actually be available for purchase in that method of purchase for anyone who wants to own it physically.
By George Robbins
Movie productions have had quite a time trying to get done at the moment considering the fact that the pandemic is making things difficult for companies to work properly. With the pandemic in play, many companies working within the film industry have had to come up with new ways to handle the world we now live in. As such, new guidelines have had to be put into place so that production crews could work in a safer environments where people wouldn’t have to worry so much about catching the virus while they were working. These new guidelines were put into place in more than just movie production crews as they were also put into effect in businesses like movie theaters. As we all know by now, movie theaters have had it the worst among the movie industry and it hasn’t gotten any easier for them as time has gone on.
Movie theaters have had a lot going wrong for them as of late and there is not much that can be done to help them except move forward. While it has been suggested from Christopher Nolan that the film industry as whole should look for better solutions to their problems than just delaying their films, there have been no good ideas to come forward thus far. As such, theaters have mostly shut their doors to the public and even those that haven’t have been losing business hand-over-fist because they can’t get people to come in. This has a lot to do with the fact that people are not willing to take the risk and go out to public theaters even with the new safety guidelines in place to protect them. These guidelines have been both helpful and harmful in the theater industry as they limit the overall number of people who can be in the building simultaneously. Obviously this helps prevent spread of the virus but it has a detrimental effect for the business.
When a company relies heavily upon having as many people present as possible to make their money, it becomes problematic when they aren’t allowed to bring that many people in. On top of that, many people like going out to theaters with both friends and family and when they can’t readily do so, it no longer becomes fun for them to try. Therefore, movie theaters only ended up in even more trouble because they couldn’t readily convince people to go out and see movies. The final straw that broke theaters was the fact that people are really only mostly interested in going to theaters as a way of seeing entirely new films. Unfortunately, there has pretty much been a lack of those new films over the past months due to the pandemic and worry from companies that people won’t want to go see them during this time period. This fear was correct, but it is also a part of the problem that theaters now have to face on a regular basis.
With a lack of variety in films at theaters, there is yet another reason why people may not want to go out to theaters because they wouldn’t have anything there that they want to watch. So now, people are just sitting at home waiting patiently along with studios for the time when things get just good enough in the world that releasing new movies will seem like a good idea. When that time finally arrives, new movies will become readily available, but until then, there are countless productions being worked on to make up for the lack of productions going out into the public. This isn’t really anything new though as there have always been countless productions going on in the world, it is just that things are more complicated now. They are just getting these upcoming movies ready for what is to come in the, hopefully, not-too-distant future, but it is more difficult now than usual.
For movie productions to actually get to work properly, they must follow the new health and safety guidelines the same way all other companies must. If they don’t follow the new guidelines then they simply aren’t allowed to work on any projects that they have coming up due to safety concerns for the crews. This has resulted in many different productions all over the world having to be pushed back significantly to make sure they were up to code. None of that necessarily mattered at all though because movie releases were being pushed back regardless of what was going on with movie productions. There are now many movies that have been finished and are prepped for theatrical release that just got pushed back tremendously, so it doesn’t matter if other movies still being worked on get pushed back either.
Among the movies still being worked on, there are plenty that have had the opportunity to start back up again and ended up being shut down for a short time yet again. This is because if anyone tests positive for the virus, then the whole production gets put on lockdown for the required two weeks. This may be an annoyance to the studios, but it does really help the films in the end as they are ultimately being worked on harder than ever. On the overall list of productions that are being worked on so hard is the ‘Jurassic World: Dominion‘ production that began in earnest earlier this year. It figures that when they had just begun working on the production that they almost immediately had to shut down because that was when the pandemic first began.
Despite the long shut down that they were forced to sit through before they could resume filming, there was actually a lot of work that ended up being done in the meantime. This ended up being a huge help for the production without people even realizing it at first because it meant that work could be done on the CGI stuff at home while everyone else was given time to work on other projects or even take some time off. In the end, the first shut down they had ended up helping them get work done as they could concentrate solely on the CGI instead of trying to multi-task. Considering the fact that this is meant to be the last film in the new ‘Jurassic World‘ trilogy, it is a pretty big deal that this film ends up being a well put together film. With that in mind, it has been pretty rough for them recently as they had to recently shut down again due to confirmed cases, but this hasn’t deterred them in any way, shape, or form.
‘Jurassic World: Dominion’s’ most recent shut down obviously occurred as there were positive virus cases reported on the production set. This resulted in a full shut down of the set in accordance with the health and safety guidelines with only a few weeks left in regards to the filming of the movie. Even though it became impossible for them to work on the upcoming final film in the new trilogy, the fact remains that they have plenty of time before the currently set release date for the film. It is due to this that there isn’t really any worry about getting the film done on time and they are still fine with the way that things are going. If anything, they think that this will actually make the film better by the end of production and by the time of the film’s release. More specifically, it is director Colin Trevorrow that believes that this is the case when it comes to the movie’s production.
Trevorrow believes that although the new guidelines and safety protocols that were put in place were difficult for the overall production, it helped make the movie better in the end. With the new protocols in place, everyone had to stay on set close to one another which only made the experience more surreal for all of them who felt the same emotional weight thrust upon them while working on the film. If everyone on the set has this common thing between them all, then they can come together and make a better film with all of their emotion behind them. In a creative capacity, this allows for plenty of different interactions to happen which could make the overall movie better in the end. Unfortunately, it will be a long time before we have the opportunity to see whether this ended up working out for them in the end or not, but we can certainly remain hopeful between then and now.
By George Robbins
There are plenty of iconic movies that will always have us thanking the movie industry simply due to the fact that they exist and ‘The Terminator‘ is one of those movies. James Cameron’s iconic 80’s action film was something unlike anything that came before and will always remain a classic film in movie history. It is quite easy to say that the movie went on to influence countless action films in the coming years and it very easily cemented Arnold Schwarzenegger as one of the biggest actors of the era. Not only was the actor cemented as one of the biggest of the era, but ‘The Terminator’ was cemented as perhaps one of the greatest films ever made. There is hardly a person alive today that has no idea what ‘The Terminator’ is or what the general premise of the film is. Without a doubt, we have that movie to thank for a lot of the action films to follow it.
The most iconic part of the original ‘Terminator’ film itself is the obvious titular antagonist, played by Schwarzenegger himself. The mechanical terror, otherwise known in-universe as the T-800 is a menace that generally terrified not only the characters on screen, but also the audiences that saw the film. While we were told early on that the character was a machine, he was given a mostly human appearance throughout most of the film. The reason for this was explained in the movie so that people would understand the reason why he was such a threat to humanity as a whole. At the time where most horror movie villains were just un-killable for supernatural reasons, James Cameron gave us a villain that was un-killable for justified reasons. This is what ended up making the film such a suspenseful thriller in the first place as we knew that it was an extremely dangerous killing machine with one centralized mission on its mind.
While the overall premise of the film made it both a suspenseful thriller and an action film, the movie aired more so on the side of overall suspense and it shows. Everything about the film sets it up to be more of a horror movie than an action movie and James Cameron made it so that we wouldn’t forget this fact. No matter what point in the film we were at, there were moments when we just weren’t sure of when the T-800 terminator would show up and try to kill the main characters. When we got to the end of the movie, we were finally given the opportunity to breath a sigh of relief because the titular machine was finally destroyed. Unfortunately, we knew in the final scene that things were only just beginning when we saw Sarah Connor pregnant with the future John Connor.
Even though the T-800 is perhaps the most iconic villain in movie history, it is also a role that became a hero in some form in the next film, ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day.’ What became a larger surprise to the general public in the second film was the fact that the T-800 we had grown to fear from the first film became a face we would grow to appreciate. Instead of trying to kill John Connor, the T-800 was sent back to protect him and thus, instead of another suspenseful film, the movie became an action film. What would be a good enemy for the T-800 to take on though since it was already proven to be capable of taking down just about anything in its path. The new role of film antagonist would actually then be passed onto the equally as famous T-1000 terminator played by Robert Patrick in perhaps his most iconic role.
With two entirely different breed of terminator now taking one another on in combat, the sequel took the turn from suspenseful thriller to straight-up action film. This was not necessarily something that we were expecting to see, but it was a welcome change once the film came out. From that point forward, both films were remembered for entirely different reasons and were both equally loved for said reasons. What made the second film so much more terrifying in some ways than the first is that the T-1000 that tormented the characters in the second film was able to be whatever it wanted to be. A being made entirely out of liquid metal which was capable of taking on whatever form it wanted was something that was even more terrifying than a huge man with a metal skeleton.
So then, if the T-1000 didn’t make its premiere as the sole antagonist of the second film and appeared in some fashion in the first film, what would that have done to the films. First of all, was the T-1000 even something that was being discussed for the first film or was it made just afterwards to be put into the second film. As it turns out, the idea of a liquid metal terminator was made up to be a part of the first film as it turns out that the film was set up to be even more ambitious than the product we received in the end. Apparently, the original script saw a couple of key differences from the final version of the film we got to see on screen including the overall events that happened throughout. For instance, a major difference was that Kyle Reese was meant to be sent back with another protector who was going to be killed early on. This wouldn’t have made too much of a difference as Sarah and Kyle would still have to take on the T-800 on their own anyway.
While the idea of having another protector in the film is major in terms of what we now know, it isn’t really game-changing. What was game-changing was the fact that the two characters were actually meant to find a way of defeating the titular antagonist by about the halfway point in the film. In the events that would proceed that, Skynet would then send back an experimental terminator unit made of liquid metal; the now known T-1000 terminator unit. In the end, these ideas would end up being scrapped due to the fact that this was all far too complex for a brand new film with no background to it. On top of that, Cameron was a new director in the Hollywood scene with a limited budget which meant that he also lacked the means to make the T-1000 exactly the way that he felt it would fit into the movie. This was all probably for the best in the end as we ended up with the incredibly suspenseful first film and the action-packed second resulting from the first script being re-done.
If the first movie managed to play out the way that the original script intended for it to be, we would most certainly have received an entirely different experience than the one we ended up with. Considering the way that every movie after the second one turned out, it is a gift that we ended up with the first two the way that they are now. With a suspenseful thriller/slasher film set during the era where slashers were popular and a sequel action film set in an era where over-the-top action was king, there was nothing more we could have anticipated. These two movies, despite being two different genres set in the same universe, managed to make something that will never be forgotten. Not many sequels can live up to their original films, but due to the fact that James Cameron ended up changing his mind in the end, he made two unique unforgettable films where a sequel actually managed to live up to the original.
Get Some Strange!
