Hollywood gets back to work: Films, TV shows are back in action

Is Hollywood ready to get back to work? The jury is hung. Several major Hollywood films (and long-running soap operas, including ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’) recently announced that they would restart their costly productions.

In March, the initial rise of COVID-19 and subsequent social distancing measures forced studios to shut down their sets — and with big budget productions, time is money. By June, however, Hollywood had received a list of health and safety protocols to put in place for any sets that were reopening, including fewer scenes with fighting and intimacy. Plus, they had to maintain closed sets with strictly no visitors.

Actor Tom Hanks says he’s itching to get back to work on his Elvis Presley biopic, but actress Charlize Theron is not willing to risk her children’s lives quite yet and could hit pause on her career amidst the pandemic. Nonetheless, several major film franchises this week announced they would restart production in the UK, including ‘Mission: Impossible 7’.

Tom Cruise will be allowed to travel to the UK without quarantining, as the UK has now introduced an exemption to their coronavirus travel rules, which will allow the casts and crews of Hollywood blockbusters to fly in for work. The team behind ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ said it will be impossible to shoot the movie without fight scenes or car scenes.

In addition, ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard is set to be one of the first major Hollywood blockbusters to resume filming in the UK. In fact, Deadline reported that they would be back to filming by the second week of July, so any moment now.

DC’s highly anticipated ‘The Batman’ starring Robert Pattinson has also gotten the green light to rev up the Batmobile, after production came to a screeching halt in March. It will go full-speed ahead in the UK, much like ‘Mission: Impossible’ and ‘Jurassic World’.

Despite being mired in controversy (in turns due to Johnny Depp, Ezra Miller and writer JK Rowling, who have all inspired backlash over the past year), ‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ is also amongst the American productions set to get back to work across the pond.

However, the sequel to the second highest-grossing movie of all time, ‘Avatar’, beat everyone else when it came to resuming production. ‘Avatar 2’ restarted filming in early June in New Zealand, with director James Cameron at the helm, after an interruption in March.

Soap operas are also gearing up to continue their long-running storylines. It’s true: the shows that UAE residents grew up on in the 90s are still on air today. ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ (on air since 1987) is already back to filming, with at least eight actors on set and new episodes ready to air. Meanwhile, ‘Days of Our Lives’ is set to restart shooting in September.

Reality TV is another sector of Hollywood that’s ready to get back to it. ‘The Bachelorette’ came to a halt in March, but they’re now moving out of the Bachelor Mansion and heading to a new isolated venue in Southern California. According to Reality Steve, it will be the Ritz-Carlton in Rancho Mirage near Palm Springs, as the venue has been completely blocked off until late August.

The 2020 season of ‘America’s Got Talent’ is already back in action. An outdoor stage, in the style of a drive-in movie theatre, was built. The judges — Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, Sofia Vergara and Howie Mandel — sit at an appropriate distance from each other on director’s chairs.

Henry Cavill’s hit Netflix series ‘The Witcher’ will film its second season in August. However, show runner Lauren S Hissrich says that lockdown changed the storyline. “It’s going to impact story. It will have to. But one of the best things about being a writer on set is that I’m there to make those changes as we need them,” she told The Wrap.

Over in the UK, season 10 of ‘Call the Midwife’ and a Christmas special have been on hold due to the coronavirus. But actor Stephen McGann has already teased that the festive episode is written and will be “extraordinary.” He also said the show is already in pre-production.

Tom Hanks, who earlier recovered from COVID-19 with his wife Rita Wilson, says he’s ready to go to Australia to continue filming Bahz Luhrrman’s Elvis Presley biopic, ‘Elvis’, which stars Austin Butler as Presley and Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker, his manager. Hanks said they’re hopeful to start production in October.

Actress Charlize Theron, however, is worried about her children. “I don’t know if I personally will go back to work anytime soon … I have two small kids. I’ve had these recurring dreams — or terrors, I should say — that I somehow stupidly got it and brought it back to my kids. I don’t want to mess with this stuff. I feel like there’s a sense of responsibility on everybody’s part to just realise that,” Theron told Vanity Fair.

Perhaps Jennifer Lopez won’t be heading onto a film set anytime soon, but the actress and singer has already been back in the studio to record new music. “It’s summertime and we’re cookin’ up something muy caliente [very hot],” she said in June.

Compared to the music industry, Hollywood may have a tougher time recovering, when it comes to new releases — however, every major musician has had to cancel or postpone their tour this year.

Speaking to Gulf News in May via a Zoom call to promote ‘Barkskins’, British actor David Thewlis reflected on the inherent intimacy of movie sets.

“Film sets are inevitable places where people are so intimate with each other and often literally with the actors — if they’re not [expletive] or fighting or beating each other up,” said Thewlis. “We’re very theatrical people, we love to hug each other and the camera crews, so it’s baffling every time I think about it. [But] I’m optimistic.”

Actress Marcia Gay Harden, in the same Zoom conversation with Gulf News, suggested a possible new normal. “We don’t have a vaccine, but we have tests … maybe [we could get back] if everybody’s tested and nobody has it and the crew wears masks and gloves,” said the actress. “The hardest part is going to be theatre, because you can’t control that audience. On a film set, there’s a lot you can control. If the choice is to be controlled, or not go back to work, I think we’ll choose to join a diagram that maybe is more restrictive, but that allows us to continue to tell stories.”