With life slowly beginning to return to normal (or a new normal), it's looking like work can now resume on a number of major Hollywood productions which were shooting in the UK before the COVID-19 pandemic halted work on them. A few weeks ago, we heard that the UK had included film productions in newly released guidelines, but Warner Bros. still held off on returning to work.
It's understandable that the studio would want to take a "wait and see" approach given the current state of the world, but a report from The Guardian indicates that both The Batman and Fantastic Beasts 3 will soon resume filming. This comes after the UK government and health bodies have signed off on safety guidelines which means productions like that can start up again.
These guidelines were drawn up by the British Film Commission and the British Film Institute, and will understandably include everything from new safety protocols to the expected social distancing.
With the movies above now given the official go ahead, we could soon see the likes of The Witcher and The Little Mermaid also resume shooting, but there could be a number of factors which slow things down. First among them is whether cast and crew members will be happy to come back at such an early stage, while social distancing requirements could lead to scenes being changed.
The good news here, though, is that they can return to work, so here's hoping we get some official news soon. In the meantime, keep checking back on CBM for all the latest updates.