Coronavirus: Production Shuts Down ‘The Batman’ Indefinitely

‘The Batman‘ production shuts down indefinitely amid the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Director Matt Reeves has confirmed that the production of ‘The Batman’, which features Robert Pattinson in the lead role, has been paused for the foreseeable future.

The movie stopped production on March 14 after finishing nearly seven weeks of filming in London.  Warner Bros said it was taking a “two-week hiatus” due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, Reeves has confirmed that production has been paused with no specific time frame, reports dailymail.co.uk.

“Yes, we have shut down till it is safe for us all to resume,” he said in a tweet. The film is scheduled to be released in movie theaters on June 25, 2021.

Coronavirus Related Hollywood Shutdown

The Hollywood shutdown has stopped only two weeks ago, but the financial impact is having a long term impact on the industry.

The Coronavirus has shut down production on many major projects including ‘The Matrix 4’ and ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’. Consequently, many teams are leaving big blockbusters as they wait and see what will happen next.

According to Variety, most studios are letting their talent know that this point they do not expect stalled productions to get started back until mid-May at the earliest. But, May could be too optimistic. The pandemic has not reached its peak and major production hubs such as New York City is experiencing a major lockdown and rise in Coronavirus cases.

Studios are not able to go back to work until local governments lift bans on gatherings of more than 10 people. One source close to Variety believes the first films to start the production will be the ones that are shooting in the United States, versus those filming overseas due to the Coronavirus.

Studios are also focusing on the safety of cast and crew and arranging ways to accommodate their cast and crew that had projects lined up months in advance. For example, Chris Pratt was supposed to work on ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’, what will happen to all other projects that were scheduled to begin production in the summer? The same goes for Hollywood’s biggest actor, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, who is now filming in Atlanta for the Netflix series ‘Red Notice’.

Variety reports, actors in supporting roles who have larger roles in other upcoming projects, will most likely drop out, and studio executives are looking at other actors to serve as replacements.

Meanwhile, movies that have not started production including Disney’s ‘Peter Pan & Wendy’ are on an indefinite hiatus. Marvel’s ‘Doctor Stange in the Multiverse of Madness’ has not pushed back their production schedule as filming is set to start shooting in June.

‘Mission: Impossible 7’ was about to start filming in Venice, Italy. But filming was pushed back after Italy was tragically hurt by the Coronavirus. Filming locations for the new movie were set to take place across Europe, making it difficult for production to move forward.

‘The Matrix 4’ finished filming in San Francisco and was set to begin filming in Berlin. ‘The Batman’ finished filming seven weeks of production in London, and ‘Red Notice’ worked for two months in Atlanta. Variety reports that it is still possible for these movies to hit theaters but, there is also a strong possibility the movie will get pushed back.

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