HOLLYWOOD ON HOLD
Coronavirus throws Hollywood’s delicate schedules into disarray
Kelly Gilblom
The crew fled so quickly after the Feb. 24 decision to delay filming of “Mission: Impossible 7,” Paramount Pictures forgot to cancel the welcome party at the opulent Gritti Palace Hotel in Venice, Italy. When a handful of straggling technical workers showed up, they feasted with silver cutlery and exquisite china in a mostly abandoned banquet hall.
That kind of confusion — and needless spending — has been characteristic of Hollywood in the coronavirus era. On-location production work, often planned years in advance, has been rescheduled at great cost. After halting filming in Venice, Paramount last week said that “Mission: Impossible” shooting scheduled for Rome this month would also be delayed. And even completed films are in trouble: Shuttered movie theaters in Asia have forced studios to scrap some premieres and rethink their schedules for the rest of the year.
On Thursday, the upcoming releases of “A Quiet Place 2” and the latest “Fast & Furious” movie, “F9,” joined the many postponements, The Associated Press reported.
Also, “Peter Rabbit 2” had been set to hit U.K. and European theaters on March 27, and open in the U.S. on April 3. Instead, Sony on Tuesday said the sequel to 2018’s “Peter Rabbit” will launch on Aug. 7, according to the AP.
More films may get pushed back as well, with the hope that coronavirus fears subside in a few months. But no one can predict how soon government restrictions will be lifted or when moviegoers will be comfortable sitting in a crowded theater.
“The thing that’s scary about the coronavirus today is that we don’t know the extent of it,” said Jason Squire, a professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and editor of “The Movie Business Book.” In Los Angeles alone, six new cases were identified within a week of expanding testing criteria. City and county officials said they are preparing for more infected patients to pop up.
In the meantime, filming delays can cost $1 million a day, Squire said. Festivals and press events, including the unveiling of Disney+ in Europe, also have been canceled. Apple said Wednesday that it wouldn’t be participating in the South by Southwest film and technology festival in Austin, Texas, where it had been planning to show new programming for its TV+ platform. Netflix also is pulling out, a spokesperson said last week.
Production problems also are now rippling through the TV industry.
“The Bachelorette” — a reality dating show that’s meant to offer an escape from any concerns of consequence — isn’t immune. The program’s new lead will no longer be courted by her male suitors in Italy next season, veering from original production plans. The country has been in lockdown after facing a spike in coronavirus cases that started in late February.
Hollywood film productions are meticulously planned, making it all the more painful when things go awry.
Every hour of every day is scheduled, and there are complex tasks like shutting down city blocks, doling out pay to dozens or hundreds of crew members, and ensuring megaprops — say, a yacht — are available, said Tyler Thompson, a producer and president of Cross Creek Pictures who worked with Tom Cruise on his 2017 film “American Made.”
While studios are used to dealing with emergencies, particularly weatherrelated ones, an illness that keeps jumping to new parts of the world is unusual.
With “Mission: Impossible,” a series that features Cruise as both a producer and leading man, the sets and props are particularly ambitious.
For the seventh installment, slated for release in 2021, workers were building a replica of the Gritti hotel to use in filming. It’s now gathering dust. And the crew that had descended on the Italian city earlier this month is in limbo.
“They told us to pack our equipment and to leave ASAP,” Arianna Pascazi, a scene artist from Rome, said by phone. “They told us to leave some of the scenes already made here, but to be honest, we don’t know if we will come back at all.”
Pascazi had just started to paint stained-glass pieces in the windows of faux buildings for the backdrop of the film’s action sequences.
Elsewhere, filmmakers fear their work may not find distributors with this cloud hanging over the industry.
That includes Heather Ross, whose documentary, “For Madmen Only,” had been set to premiere March 15 at the South by Southwest festival, which was canceled on March 6. Conference participants, such as Apple, Netflix, Amazon.com, Facebook and Twitter, had pulled out, and a petition with more than 45,000 signatures had urged organizers to call off the event to protect against the spread of the disease.
Shawn Robbins, an analyst at the Box Office Co., expects studios and organizers of big events to stay on edge. The Bond delay “sets a precedent,” he said.
“In terms of productions that are putting a pause on things, it’s the smart decision to make at this point,” Robbins said. “As much as we want to see these films get made, the No. 1 priority is getting the world through this health crisis right now.”