Avatar to restart shoot
DIRECTOR James Cameron and producer Jon Landau arrived in Wellington, New Zealand on Sunday morning local time in preparation for the resumption of filming of the Avatar film series.
But filming may not restart immediately. The inbound travellers will be subjected to a 14-day quarantine period.
Production had been shut down in mid-march when New Zealand began a strict lockdown in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak, and largely closed its borders.
It is understood that in order to be allowed into the country at a time when borders are officially still closed Cameron, Landau and the foreign crew elements used a border exemption clause for foreigners considered of “significant economic value”.
That should not have been too much of a stretch for Avatar.
The films are already receiving money available under New Zealand’s location subsidy scheme for large-scale foreign film and TV shoots. And by fulfilling several other conditions that leave an enduring legacy on the economy, the film also aims to receive a financial bonus, known locally as an “uplift”.
The scale of the production, which covers all of the second and third films in the series and half of the fourth, and its use of indoor facilities for the entire movie, means that Avatar is making use of multiple studios in Wellington and Auckland.
New Zealand has elaborated a detailed set of guidelines for how productions should operate in the new era where coronavirus cases are declining, but no vaccine yet exists.
A handful of local productions are understood to have restarted.
With Cameron back in the country, Avatar is on course to be the first foreign movie to use New Zealand’s production protocols. – Reuters